The earliest foundations of what would become computer science predate the invention of the modern digital computer. Machines for calculating fixed numerical tasks such as the abacus have existed sinc ...
Phenotypic plasticity in plants includes the allocation of more resources to the roots in soils that contain low concentrations of nutrients and the alteration of leaf size and thickness. Dandelion ar ...
The field of plant physiology includes the study of all the internal activities of plants—those chemical and physical processes associated with life as they occur in plants. This includes study at ma ...
The word "morphology" is from the "Ancient Greek" μορφ?, morphé = form and λ?γο?, lógos = word, study, research. The biological concept of morphology was developed by Johann Wolfgang von G ...
Crustaceans such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp and prawns have long been part of human cuisine, and are now farmed on a large commercial scale. Insects and their grubs are at least as nutritiou ...
Arthropods are invertebrates with segmented bodies and jointed limbs. The limbs form part of an exoskeleton, which is mainly made of α-chitin, a derivative of glucose. One other group of animals, the ...
The newly hatched young of oviparous fish are called larvae. They are usually poorly formed, carry a large yolk sac (for nourishment) and are very different in appearance from juvenile and adult speci ...
Fish do not represent a monophyletic group, and therefore the "evolution of fish" is not studied as a single event.Early fish from the fossil record are represented by a group of small, jawless, armor ...
The placement of turtles has historically been highly variable. Classically, turtles were considered to be related to the primitive anapsid reptiles. Molecular work has usually placed turtles within t ...
The reptiles were, from the outset of classification, grouped with the amphibians. Linnaeus, working from species-poor Sweden, where the common adder and grass snake are often found hunting in water, ...
Many bird species migrate to take advantage of global differences of seasonal temperatures, therefore optimising availability of food sources and breeding habitat. These migrations vary among the diff ...
The majority of mammals have seven cervical vertebrae (bones in the neck), including bats, giraffes, whales, and humans. The exceptions are the manatee and the two-toed sloth, which have only six cerv ...
The nervous system derives its name from nerves, which are cylindrical bundles of fibers (the axons of neurons), that emanate from the brain and spinal cord, and branch repeatedly to innervate every p ...
Cephalopods, typically octopuses and squids, have been depicted commonly in Western pop culture as creatures that enjoy hugging or latching onto things with their limbs and refusing to release. Some o ...
