Definition: Capable of creating a new organism by combining the genetic material of two gametes, which may come from two parent organisms or from a single organism, in the case of self-fertilizing hermaphrodites.
Definition: Active swimming organisms that live in the water column and are able to move independently of the water mass (adapted from Lincoln et al., 1998).
Definition: The number of fossil occurrences in the Paleobiology Database (https://paleobiodb.org) that are identified as belonging to a particular taxon or any of its subtaxa.
Definition: Capable of creating a new organism by combining the genetic material of two gametes, which may come from two parent organisms or from a single organism, in the case of self-fertilizing hermaphrodites.
Definition: position of an organism in a food web. May be described verbally with descriptors including primary producer, herbivore or carnivore. If described numerically, 1 indicates a primary producer, 2 a herbivore, and so on up the food web.
Definition: The institution that holds a type specimen for a given species. The recommended best practice is to use the identifier in a collections registry such as the Biodiversity Collections Index (http://www.biodiversitycollectionsindex.org/).
Definition: Relative to pinhole eyes, lens eyes have greatly improved resolution and image brightness. The lens converges incoming rays of light, thereby reducing the angle over which each photoreceptor receives light, and forming an image focused on the retina. Most lens eyes have "accommodation"; they can focus an image either by physically moving the lens toward or away from the retina or by using eye muscles to adjust the shape of the lens.
