Evolution
He wrote the book entitled "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life."
Charles Darwin
An association of living organisms and their physical environment.
Ecosystem
Unofficial taxonomy groups that often split Kingdom Animalia into two groups.
Vertebrates and Invertebrates
A body covering, typically made of chitin, that provides support and protection.
Exoskeleton
A rod of tough, flexible material that runs the length of a creature's body, providing the majority of it's support.
Notochord
Darwin tried to use his observations of this species types on this island to support is theory of natural selection.
Finches on the Galapagos Islands
The energy consumption relationship within an ecosystem, also known as a food chain.
Trophic levels
The phylum of a whole group of creatures called "sponges".
Porifera
This allows the blood to flow out of the blood vessels and into various body cavities so that the cells are in direct contact with the blood.
Open Circulatory System
These promote the formation of bone tissue by producing the bone matrix.
Osteoblasts
The unconfirmed hypothesis that explains the idea of one organism becoming another with the adding of information to its genetic code.
Macroevolution
A specific form of symbiosis in which two or more organisms live in a mutually beneficial relationship.
Mutualism
Dividing an organism into two identical halves by any longitudinal cut through its center.
Radial symmetry
A body region composed of a head and thorax fused together.
Cephalothorax
The most common example of a creature from class Agnatha.
Lamprey eel
This is what paleontologists call the representation of Charles Wescott's discovery of the fossil representatives from every major phylum that exists in our classification scheme in the "Burgess Shale".
The Cambrian Explosion
Vitally important organisms in an ecosystem that take care of the energy that is "lost" between trophic levels (they eat the part of the organisms that consumers don't eat).
Decomposers
Members of the phylum Cnidaria have these small capsules that contain a toxin which is injected into prey or predators.
Nematocysts
Insect development consisting of three stages: egg, nymph, and adult.
Incomplete metamorphosis
Development that occurs inside the female, allowing the offspring to gain nutrients and vital substances from the mother through a placenta.
Viviparous development
The scientific name of the creature that is alleged to be a transitional form between ape and man.
Australopithecus afarensis
One of the principal gases involved in the greenhouse effect and has the task of keeping the earth hospitable for life.
Carbon dioxide
The structure of an Annelid that aids in reproduction and helps to distinguish the head from its tail.
Clitellum
The classification Order of the insects biologists call all of the species "social insects".
Hymenoptera
These sense various stimuli from the environment, then translate the stimuli into electrical signals that are sent to the brain.
Receptors