Natural History of Vertebrates
List of Terms
Chapter 9 - Salamanders, Anurans, and Caecilians


The following are terms that you should look up. You should be able to define each term and give a clear, specific example of each. Most of these terms are in your textbook, some will be presented in lecture, and others may come from your previous course work. A good investment at this point in your career would be the investment in one or more dictionaries which are specific to biology. One dictionary that I would recommend is "A Dictionary of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics" (second edition) by Lincoln, Boxshall and Clark. It is published by Cambridge University Press and the ISBN number is 0 521 43842 for the paperback version.

Taxonomic terms may be the scientific names or common names associated with various groups of organisms. Generic names are capitalized and in italics. Scientific names for families or higher are capitalized. Common names start with lower case letters.

I will use these terms in lecture at various times throughout the semester and will expect you to know them. They may also appear on tests. It would be a very good idea to include a section in your notes where you write out the definitions to these terms.

List of Terms
Taxonomic Terms
inertial feeding
hyobranchial
tongue protrusion
buccal pump respiration
ipsilateral
contralateral
nasolabial groove
external nares
vomeronasal organ
stereoscopic (binocular) vision
dear enemy recognition
urostyle
arboreal
toe disk
cryptic
aposematic
spermatophore
pheromone
hedonic gland
mental gland
explosive breeding
prolonged breeding
advertisement call
amplexus
release call
tadpole
kin recognition
premetamorphosis
prometamorphosis
metamorphic climax
thyroxine
uricotelism
pelvic patch
hyposmolal
mucous gland
poison gland
mimicry
 anurans
Urodela
gymnophionans
salamanders
caecilians
Last updated on 24 February 2003
Provide comments to Dwight Moore at mooredwi@emporia.edu
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