Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

musk deer

(Encyclopedia)musk deer, small, antlerless deer, Moschus moschiferus, found in wet mountain forests from Siberia and Korea to the Himalayas. In summer it ranges up to 8,000 ft (2,400 m). It is from 20 to 24 in. (50...

avatara

(Encyclopedia)avatara ăvˌətârə [key] [Skt.,=descent], incarnations of Hindu gods, especially Vishnu. The doctrine of avatara first occurs in the Bhagavad-Gita, where Krishna declares: “For the preservation o...

Noah

(Encyclopedia)Noah nōˈə [key] [Heb.,=to rest], in the Bible, the builder of the ark. Righteous Noah and his family were the only people God saved from a world sunk in sin. At divine direction Noah built the ship...

Nematomorpha

(Encyclopedia)Nematomorpha nĕmˌətəmôrˈfə [key], small (about 230 species) phylum of pseudocoelomates; the horsehair worms. Most are very slender, elongated creatures found in ponds and streams, whose larvae ...

megatherium

(Encyclopedia)megatherium mĕgəthērˈēəm [key] [Gr.,=large beast], extinct ground sloth, of the genus Megatherium, that was widely distributed in North and South America in the Pleistocene epoch. Fossil evidenc...

mercaptan

(Encyclopedia)mercaptan thīˈōl [key], any of a class of organic compounds containing the group –SH bonded to a carbon atom. The volatile low-molecular-weight mercaptans have disagreeable odors. Mercaptans are ...

aspartic acid

(Encyclopedia)CE5 aspartic acid əspärˈtĭk [key], organic compound, one of the 20 amino acids commonly found in animal proteins. Only the l-stereoisomer participates in the biosynthesis of proteins. Its acidi...

Lacépède, Bernard Germain Étienne de la Ville, comte de

(Encyclopedia)Lacépède, Bernard Germain Étienne de la Ville, comte de bĕrnärˈ zhĕrmăNˈ ātyĕnˈ də lä vēl kôNt də läsāpĕdˈ [key], 1756–1825, French naturalist. As a youth he showed considerable...

Kali

(Encyclopedia)Kali käˈlē [key] [Hindi,=the Black One], important goddess in popular Hinduism and Tantra. Known also as Durga [the Inaccessible] and as Chandi [the Fierce], Kali is associated with disease, death,...

Panchatantra

(Encyclopedia)Panchatantra pŭnˌchətŭnˈtrə [key] [Sanskrit,=five treatises], anonymous collection of animal fables in Sanskrit literature, probably compiled before a.d. 500 (see Bidpai). The work, derived from...