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SE Glossary...; ... any suggestions?
Topic Started: May 8 2010, 12:28 PM (1,830 Views)
Pando
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Why not put the Primary Consumer, Primary/Teriary Consumer, and Tertiary/Quarternary Consumers like I asked in the 2nd post?
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Ddraig Goch
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Ar hyd y nos

Well, I could put them in alongside carnivore, herbivore, etc.
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Pando
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Carnivore, herbivore, etc... is specific, those are wide in spectrum.
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Ddraig Goch
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Ar hyd y nos

Not really. "Frugivore" or "insectivore" is specific, carnivore/ herbivore/ omnivore is really quite broad.
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Ddraig Goch
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Ar hyd y nos

Could anyone give me a good definition of "eukyrote"?
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Pando
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Animals with advanced cells. For all the differences you'll have to find it yourself though.
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Ddraig Goch
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Ar hyd y nos

Thanks for that. :)
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Pando
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Hey, I've added it to my site. Visit it at: http://postozoic.yolasite.com/speculative-evolution-terms.php
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Ddraig Goch
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Ar hyd y nos

You're welcome! :)
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Holben
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Can someone add it to SECW?
Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea.

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Ammonite
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A few more you should add.

Extremophile: An organism that requires extreme conditions, like very hot or very cold temperatures, in order to live.
Sclerophyll: A type of vegetation characterized by thick, hard leaves that grow tightly together. They grow in arid conditions.

Paedomorphosis: An evolutionary process by which organisms retain juvenile traits into adulthood.
Neoteny: When the change to adulthood is slowed in such a way that an organism can reproduce before becoming an adult.
Progenesis: When development is halted before the organism is able to reach sexual maturity.
Post-displacement: When physical development into an adult is delayed for whichever reason.
Metamorphosis: The process by which an organism's larval phase develops into n adult phase.
Mimickry: When an organism evolves to look and/or act like another organism in order to gain the same benefits (e.g. avoiding predators).
Endemic: When a species is native to only one region in one specific part of the world.
Symbiosis: The process by which two organisms evolve to depend on each other for survival.
Co-evolution: The process by which two organisms evolve specifically toward living amongst each other.

Photic: The layer of open water that recieves enough sunlight to permit phytoplankton and other plants to grow. The topmost layer of an ocean.
Pelagic: The layer of open water that is bright enough to see in but does not have enough sunlight for plants to grow. The middle or intermediate layer of an ocean.
Abyssal: The layer of open water that becomes too dark to see in and which water pressure becomes a concern. The bottom layer of an ocean.
Benthic: The zone that exists on the bottom or deepest floor of an ocean or lake.
Littoral: The part of an open water environment that is closest to the shore.
Trogloxene: An organism that can frequent a cave or live in it for a short period of time but can not spend its whole live there.
Troglophile: An organism that can live its entire life in a cave but can also live in other places.
Troglobite: An organism that can only live in caves and nowhere else.

Gene locus (pl. loci): The part of an organism's genome that controls a particular trait and allows it to vary through the expression of alleles.
Hybrid: The offspring of two different species.
Backtracking: The process of artificial selection by which a hybrid is bred with one of its parent species.

Phenetics: The practice of grouping species based purely on physiological traits and with no regard to genetic relationships.
Cladistics: The practice of grouping species based on similarity heirarchies.
Clade: A group of organisms or species that are seperated from other organisms or species based on an acquired trait that all of those species share.
Phylogeny: The practice of using genetic closeness to determine how far removed an organism or species is from another organism or species. Does not lump species into groups or place them on exclusivity heirarchies.
Phylum: A group of species that shares a single recent ancestor.
Monophylum: A genetic phylum or species that is seperated from other phyla by aquired traits.
Polyphylum: A group of phyla or species that share similar or identical traits but that are not a genetically exclusive phylum. E.g. Grouping mammals and birds together as endotherms.
Paraphylum: The phyla or species in a larger group that are not characterized by a certain trait. Basically, "everyone else." E.g. All apes that are not exclusively bipedal are members of a paraphylum called "non-human primates."
Basal Group: A group of organisms that are still a part of their ancestral phylum due to not acquiring any new traits.
Crown group: A group of extant species and their most recent common ancestor.

Analogy: Differences in the same trait that are exhibited by closely related species or species with a common ancestor. Compare a whale flipper with a human arm.
Homology: Similarities in the same trait that are exhibited by closely related species or species with a common ancestor. Compare the wings of bats with a human arm.
Homoplasy: Different traits that have become similar to one another through their use for for the same purpose. Also called convergence or convergent evolution.
Plesiomorphy: A trait that is inherited by a species but that was acquired before the last common ancestor of two related species arose. Fur is a plesiomorphy in primates but not in mammals. Also called a primitive trait or characteristic.
Symplesiomorphy: A plesiomorphy that is shared between two species with a last common ancestor.
Apomorphy: A trait that was inherited by a species and that arose in the last common ancestor of two related species. Also called a derived trait or characteristic. Nails are an apomorphy in primates. Also called a derived trait or characteristic.
Synapomorphy: An apomorphy that is shared between two species with a last common ancestor.

Pre-adaptation: A trait that evolved inadvertantly and is used for a certain purpose instead of being adapted for it. A precursor to adaptation.
Exaptation: A trait that had been previously adapted for one purpose but that can - and inadvertantly is - used for an entirely different purpose. E.g. feathers going from an aid in insulation to an aide in flight.

Allopatry: Speciation through geographic isolation.
Sympatry: Speciation alongside a parent population. A population's version of a cell fissioning or splitting in two.
Peripatry: Speciation through population isolation but not geographic isolation.
Parapatry: Speciation within a population, most likely through physiological and/or behavioural differences that arose within the population and was then selected for.

Ring species: A speciation event amongst a bunch of populations where each population is still able to breed with the populations closest to it but becomes unable to breed with those populations that are farther away. Named aptly because the whole population breeding dynamic tends to look like a ring.

More may come to me later. Stay tuned.

EDIT: I added descriptions for all of the terms.
Edited by Ammonite, Aug 3 2010, 03:24 PM.
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colddigger
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"eukaryote" would be a type of cell in which the DNA is kept within a nucleus, examples being animals, fungi, and protists.
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Yeah! You used my words!
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Ammonite
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I'm back with more:

Chemosynthesis: The process by which autotrophic organisms obtain metabolic energy through the oxidation of chemicals.

Saltorial: Being adapted for jumping, leaping, hopping, etc. Characterized by longer hindlimbs and shorter forelimbs.

Natural selection: An evolutionary process by which organisms select for environmental adaptability by breeding with those individuals that are able to live in the environment successfully.

Sexual selection: An evolutionary process by which organisms select for certain traits by only breeding with individuals with certain favoured characteristics.

Intra-sexual selection: A form of sexual selection whereby males compete with one another and sometimes attempt to monopolize females or keep them from breeding with other males.

Inter-sexual selection: A form of sexual selection whereby males have to win the favour of females by exhibiting certain favoured traits, like a peacock's plumage. Females select for the males that exemplify that trait the best.

Artificial selection: An evolutionary process by which one species (in most cases humans) controls the selection of another species by only allowing individuals with traits that are favoured by the outside species to breed with one another.

r-selection: A breeding strategy whereby organisms breed often, exhibit very little sexual selection, and produce many offspring at once. Mice and rats are a good example of this.

K-selection: A breeding strategy whereby organisms breed do not breed as often, exhibit more sexual selection, and produce only one or two offspring at a time. Humans and elephants are good examples of this.

Precocial: A developmental strategy whereby organisms produce offspring that are born very well-developed, grow up quickly, and therefore require very little parental investment. Such offspring tend to rely more on instincts and innate behaviours to survive and are more common with r-selected breeding strategies.

Altricial: A developmental strategy whereby organisms produce offspring that are born relatively helpless, take a long time to grow up, and therefore require a lot of parental investment. Such offspring tend to rely more on learning and hence also need to be taught by their parents how to survive, so this developmental strategy is more common with K-selected breeding strategies.

Sexual dimorphism: An evolutionary phenomenon that is usually seen in species that use intra-sexual selection and results in a notable difference in size and/or physiology between the sexes. Gorillas, baboons and elephant seals are good examples of this.

.....

If you want descriptions on any of these, just ask. I can edit my posts and put them in. BTW, should we have a different glossary for phylum names of Organisms like Archaea, Eukaryota, unikonta, bikonta, deuterostome, etc.? And what about evolutionary laws and theories?

EDIT: I put in descriptions for all of the terms listed. I also spaced out the terms because their descriptions were longer than I intended.
Edited by Ammonite, Aug 5 2010, 01:11 PM.
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Ddraig Goch
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Ar hyd y nos

...wow.

If it's not too much trouble, could you possibly add descriptions to as many as possible?

I intended the list to be a referance for both beginners and more advanced speccers, so I guess the more words added to the list the better.

Specific phylum names aren't necessarily required, and evolutionary laws and theories should be more in-depth, so probably require a special mini-essay going over the main points, if one was needed.
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