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Paine, Robert Treat, 3d

(Encyclopedia) Paine, Robert Treat, 3d, 1933–2016, American ecologist, b. Cambridge, Mass., Ph.D. Univ. of Michigan, 1961. He was on the faculty of the Univ. of Washington from 1962 to 1998. Paine's…

Australopithecus

(Encyclopedia) AustralopithecusAustralopithecusôstrāˌlōpĭthˈəkəs, –pəthēˈkəs [key], an extinct hominin genus found in Africa between about 4 and 1 million years ago. At least seven species of…

adaptive radiation

(Encyclopedia) CE5 Adaptive radiation in Hawaiian honey-creepers adaptive radiation, in biology, the evolution of an ancestral species, which was adapted to a particular way of life, into many…

biogenetic law

(Encyclopedia) biogenetic law, in biology, a law stating that the earlier stages of embryos of species advanced in the evolutionary process, such as humans, resemble the embryos of ancestral species…

Priapulida

(Encyclopedia) Priapulida, phylum consisting of 17 species of predatory, unsegmented marine worms that live in the sand and mud at the sea bottom. The largest are 4 to 6 in. (10–17 cm) long, but the…

Darwin's finches

(Encyclopedia) Darwin's finches or Galapagos finchesDarwin's finchesgəläˈpəgōsˌ [key], species of small perching birds, constituting the subfamily Geospizinae of the tanager family. Not related to…

bee-eater

(Encyclopedia) bee-eater, any of the brightly colored, insect-eating birds of the family Meropidae. They range in length from 6 to 14 in. (15–36 cm). The plumage of many species is predominantly…

logania

(Encyclopedia) loganialoganialōgāˈnēə [key], common name for the Loganiaceae, a family of herbs, shrubs, and trees of warmer climates, including many woody climbing species. Some plants of this…

cicada

(Encyclopedia) cicadacicadasĭkāˈdə [key], large, noise-producing insect of the order Homoptera, with a stout body, a wide, blunt head, protruding eyes, and two pairs of membranous wings. The front…

rafflesia

(Encyclopedia) rafflesiarafflesiarăflēˈzhə [key], any of a genus (Rafflesia) of parasitic plants native to the rain forests of the Malay peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo, and the Philippines. The plants…