Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

128 results found

Equisetophyta

(Encyclopedia)Equisetophyta ĕkˌwəsətŏfˈətə [key], small division of the plant kingdom consisting of the plants commonly called horsetails and scouring rushes. Equisetum, the only living genus in this divisi...

Lycopodiophyta

(Encyclopedia)Lycopodiophyta līˌkōpōˌdēŏfˈətə [key], division of the plant kingdom consisting of the organisms commonly called club mosses and quillworts. As in other vascular plants, the sporophyte, or s...

penguin

(Encyclopedia)penguin, originally the common name for the now extinct great auk of the N Atlantic and now used (since the 19th cent.) for the unrelated, generally antarctic diving birds of the Southern Hemisphere. ...

Tavener, Sir John Kenneth

(Encyclopedia)Tavener, Sir John Kenneth tăvˈənər, –nə [key], 1944–2013, English composer, b. London; studied Royal Academy of Music. Tavener, whose work shows a consistent but evolving tonal or modal style...

sex

(Encyclopedia)sex, term used to refer both to the two groups distinguished as males and females, and to the anatomical and physiological characteristics associated with maleness and femaleness. Sex relates to the t...

dolphin, aquatic mammal

(Encyclopedia)dolphin, aquatic mammal, any of the small toothed whales of the family Delphinidae, numbering more than 50 species. These include the true, or beaked, dolphins, the killer whale, the pilot whale, and ...

birth defects

(Encyclopedia)birth defects, abnormalities in physical or mental structure or function that are present at birth. They range from minor to seriously deforming or life-threatening. A major defect of some type occurs...

multiple birth

(Encyclopedia)multiple birth, bringing forth of more than one offspring at birth. Although many smaller mammals bear several young at a time, multiple births are relatively uncommon in humans and other primates. Tw...

mammal

(Encyclopedia)mammal, an animal of the highest class of vertebrates, the Mammalia. The female has mammary glands, which secrete milk for the nourishment of the young after birth. In the majority of mammals the body...

Annelida

(Encyclopedia)CE5 A. The earthworm, Lumbricus terrestris, representative of the phylum Annelida. B. Internal anatomy of an earthworm. Annelida ənĕlˈĭdə [key] [Lat., anellus=a ring], phylum of soft-bodied, ...