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symmetry, biological

(Encyclopedia)symmetry, biological, similarity or balance between parts of an organism so that when a straight cut is made through a point or along a line, equal, mirror-image halves are formed. Symmetry in body sh...

brittlestar

(Encyclopedia)brittlestar, common name for echinoderms belonging to the class Ophiuroidea. The name is derived from their habit of breaking off arms as a means of defense. New arms are easily regenerated. They are ...

jewelweed

(Encyclopedia)jewelweed, common name for the Balsaminaceae, a family of widely distributed annual and perennial herbs. The principal genus is Impatiens, so named because of the sudden bursting of the mature seed ca...

Kennedy, William

(Encyclopedia)Kennedy, William, 1928–, American novelist, b. Albany, N.Y., grad. Siena College, 1949. Brought up in Albany, he worked as a journalist from 1949 to 1970, and began to concentrate on writing fiction...

magpie

(Encyclopedia)magpie, common name for certain birds of the family Corvidae (crows and jays). The black-billed magpie, Pica pica or P. hudsonia, of W North America has iridescent black plumage, white wing patches an...

Koprowski, Hilary

(Encyclopedia)Koprowski, Hilary, 1916–2013, Polish-American microbiologist and immunologist, b. Warsaw, M.D. Univ. of Warsaw, 1939. He fled Poland after the Nazi invasion (1939), making his way to Brazil where he...

goldenrod

(Encyclopedia)goldenrod, any species of the large genus Solidago of the family Asteraceae (aster family), chiefly North American weedy herbs. They have small yellow flowers clustered, often in panicles, along a wan...

groundsel

(Encyclopedia)groundsel groundˈsəl [key], any plant of the very large genus Senecio, widely distributed herbs and (in the tropics) shrubs or trees of the family Asteraceae (aster family). Many grow as vines. Most...

guayule

(Encyclopedia)guayule wīyo͞oˈlē, gwä– [key], multibranched flowering evergreen shrub, Parthenium argentatum, native to the deserts of the SW United States and N Mexico. Growing to 3 ft (1 m) in height, the g...

jungle fowl

(Encyclopedia)jungle fowl, common name for small, terrestrial wild fowl comprising four species in the genus Gallus. Most important of these is the red jungle fowl, which Charles Darwin determined to be the ancesto...