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Colorado Plateau

(Encyclopedia)Colorado Plateau, physiographic region of SW North America, c.150,000 sq mi (388,500 sq km), in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico, including the “Four Corners” area. It is characterized by b...

agouti

(Encyclopedia)agouti əgo͞oˈtē [key], name applied to rabbit-sized rodents of the genus Dasyprocta, found in Central and South America and in the West Indies. They have slender limbs with five front and three hi...

Jackson, William Henry

(Encyclopedia)Jackson, William Henry, 1843–1942, American artist and pioneer photographer of the West, b. Keeseville, N.Y. After serving with the Union army in the Civil War he traveled overland to California (18...

waterfall

(Encyclopedia)waterfall, a sudden unsupported drop in a stream. It is formed when the stream course is interrupted as when a stream passes over a layer of harder rock—often igneous—to an area of softer and ther...

Phoronida

(Encyclopedia)Phoronida fərŏnˈədə [key], small phylum of slender, wormlike marine tube-dwellers, typically found in temperate, shallow seas. About 10 species are known. Although the body is free in the tube, t...

isopod

(Encyclopedia)isopod īˈsəpŏdˌ [key], common name for crustaceans belonging to the order Isopoda and in the same subclass as lobsters and crayfish. Isopods are characterized by their flattened bodies, lack of a...

mastodon

(Encyclopedia)mastodon măsˈtədŏnˌ [key], name for a number of prehistoric mammals of the extinct genus Mammut, from which modern elephants are believed to have developed. The earliest known forms lived in the ...

termite

(Encyclopedia)termite or white ant, common name for a soft-bodied social insect of the infraorder Isoptera. Originally classified in as a separate order, termites are genetically related to cockroaches and are now ...

angler

(Encyclopedia)angler or anglerfish, common name for a member of the order Lophiiformes, predacious fishes found worldwide; many are deep-sea dwellers. Anglers lure their prey with a long, wormlike appendage that ex...

millet

(Encyclopedia)millet, common name for several species of grasses cultivated mainly for cereals in the Eastern Hemisphere and for forage and hay in North America. The principal varieties are the foxtail, pearl, and ...