Your Inner Fish Chapters 7-8

CHAPTER 7

glycerin: a simple polyol (sugar alcohol) compound that is a colorless, odorless, viscous liquid that is widely used in pharmaceutical formulations.

microbes: any living organism that spends its life at a size too tiny to be seen with the naked eye, including bacteria and archae bacteria

Precambrian: a period thought to be devoid of life

skeleton: the internal structure that protects and supports the soft organs, tissues, and other parts of a vertebrate organism, and is composed of bone and cartilage

Hydroxyapatite: the calcium phosphate mineral found both in rocks of non-organic origin and as a component of bone and dentine

cartilage: a firm, connective tissue found in many areas of the body that is softer and much more flexible than bone

collagen: the most abundant protein in the human body and is the substance that holds the whole body together; found in the bones, muscles, skin and tendons

proteoglycan: a molecule that gives cartilage strength when squeezed or compressed; a molecule that swells up with water

enamel: the hard mineralized surface of teeth that insulates the teeth from potentially painful temperatures and chemicals

placozoan: a basal form of invertebrate that are the simplest in structure of all non-parasitic multicellular animals

choanoflagellates: a group of free-living unicellular and colonial flagellate eukaryotes considered to be the closest living relatives of the animals

CHAPTER 8

anatomy: the branch of science concerned with the bodily structure of humans, animals, and other living organisms, especially as revealed by dissection and the separation of parts

biology: the study of living organisms, divided into many specialized fields that cover their morphology, physiology, anatomy, behavior, origin, and distribution

receptor: an organ or cell able to respond to light, heat, or other external stimulus and transmit a signal to a sensory nerve

neurons: a specialized cell transmitting nerve impulses; a nerve cell

olfactory epithelium: a specialized epithelial tissue inside the nasal cavity that is involved in smell

genome: the haploid set of chromosomes in a gamete or microorganism, or in each cell of a multicellular organism

mutation: the changing of the structure of a gene, resulting in a variant form that may be transmitted to subsequent generations, caused by the alteration of single base units in DNA, or the deletion, insertion, or rearrangement of larger sections of genes or chromosomes

evolution: the process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the earth