Glossary

Benthic: Living at the bottom of a sea or lake*

Brood (noun): A number of offspring or young produced or hatched at one time*

Brood (verb): To incubate*

Convergent Evolution: The development through evolution of similar features by
organisms with distinctly different ancestors*

Copulation: Sexual intercourse*

Dark Threshold: A level of darkness at which light levels are low enough for feeding and reproductive activity to occur

Detritivore: An organism that feeds on and breaks down dead plant or animal matter, returning essential nutrients to the ecosystem*

Ecdysis: The shedding or casting off of an outer coat or integument by snakes, crustaceans, etc.*

Entrainment: When a competing male bioluminescent ostracod produces a bioluminescent mating display parallel to another male's

Furca: A foot used for swimming that can also propel the ostracod along the sediment

Glycogen: A polysaccharide that is the main form of carbohydrate storage in animals and occurs mainly in liver and muscle tissue; it is readily converted to glucose.*

Heterotrophic: An organism that cannot manufacture its own food and instead obtains its food and energy by taking in organic substances*

Incisur: An opening in the ostracod's carapace that allows for the extension and use of its antennae

Instar: A stage in the life of an arthropod between two successive molts*

Forage: The act of searching for food*

Keel: A longitudinal ridge that streamlines the organism and helps it stay upright

Leading: When a male initiates the first bioluminescent mating display of the night

Light Organ: The gland in bioluminescent ostracods that produces the protein luciferin and the enzyme luciferase, chemicals that create bioluminescence for Photeros annecohenae

Microhabitat: An extremely localized, small-scale environment*

Molting: To shed an outer covering, such as skin or feathers, for replacement by a new growth*

Nautical Twilight: The period of time when the sun is six to 12 degrees below the horizon

Ommatidia: One of the tiny light-sensitive parts of the compound eye of insects and other arthropods. An ommatidium resembles a single simplified eye.* Each of the ommatidium capture part of the image; these images are then sent to the brain to be "put together."

Open Circulatory System: System in which nutrients and oxygen are transported throughout the body via a transport fluid, hemolymph; this hemolymph is not transported in enclosed vessels as it would be in a closed circulatory system.

Scavenger: An organism that feeds on dead organic matter*

Secondary Predator: The predator's predator

Sneakers: When a “photetically-silent” male follows a luminescent male’s mating display in hopes of intercepting a female swimming across his spiral path

Setae: A stiff hair, bristle, or bristle-like process or part on an organism*

Sexual Dimorphism: Differences in appearance between the males and females of a species*

Sexual Selection: An evolutionary process in animals, in which selection by females of males with certain characters results in the preservation of these characters in the species*

Spermatophores: Sacs of sperm inserted and left in the female by a male of her own species so other males cannot impregnate her

Taxonomy: The science dealing with the description, identification, naming, and classification of organisms*

Viscera: The soft internal organs of the body, especially those contained within the abdominal and thoracic cavities*


Definitions with an asterix symbol (*) after them came from www.dictionary.com.

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