Zoology

Diets

Many of these can be asked either way round. For example: "What type of food forms the staple diet of a nucivorous animal?"

Animal that eats meat		Carnivore
Animal that eats fruit		Frugivore (fructivore), carpophagous
Animal that eats only plants		Herbivore
Animal that eats nuts		Nucivore
Animal that eats both plant and animal matter		Omnivore
Animal that eats grass		Graminivore (or grazer)
Animals that eat the leaves of trees and shrubs		Browsers
Verminivorous: feeding on		Worms

Types of animal

An alate creature is one that has		Wings
An excaudate or anourous animal is one that has no		Tail
An apodous animal is one that has no		Feet
A catadromous animal is one that has		Migrates down rivers to the sea to breed
A diurnal animal is one that		Active during the daytime
An edentate animal is one that has no		Teeth
A glabrous animal is one that has no		Hair or fur
Common term for a homeothermic animal (cf. polikothermic)		Warm blooded
An oviparous animal is one that		Lay eggs
A palmiped is an animal that has		Webbed feet
Passerine birds are so called because their feet are specially adapted for		Perching
A pinniped is a		Mammal with flippers
A plantigrade animal is one that		Walks on flats of feet
Common term for a polikothermic animal (cf. homeothermic)		Cold–blooded
An ungulate is an animal that has		Hooves
A viviparous animal is one that is		Live young

Other

Sleeping through the summer (the opposite of hibernation)		Aestivation
Person or animal with congenital lack of pigment		Albino
Biliverdin and bilirubin are (respectively) the yellow–orange and green pigments in		Bile
Nidification (particularly of birds)		Building nests
Shell of a tortoise, crab or lobster (upper part – see also Plastron)		Carapace
Species able to breed with each other (from the Greek for common)		Cenospecies
Forms the hard parts of joint–footed animals, and insect skeletons		Chitin (kye–tin)
The Latin word for a sewer: the single orifice that serves as the only opening for the digestive, reproductive, and urinary tracts in amphibians, reptiles, birds, and a few mammals		Cloaca
Spraints (otter), crotties or fewmets (deer), scat (carnivorous mammals)		Droppings (dung)
Common name for albumen		Egg white
Any gland that secretes hormones into the bloodstream		Endocrine gland
The nictitating membrane, or haw (present in some reptiles, birds, sharks, and mammals) is also known as the third		Eyelid
The joint in the hind leg of a quadruped, between the knee and the fetlock – the angle of which points backwards		Hock (or gambrel)
Animal that has no backbone		Invertebrate
Tough, fibrous protein: the main constituent of rhino horns (and human hair)		Keratin
Sugar found in milk		Lactose
Mammal where the female carries the young in a pouch		Marsupial
The largest cells in the bodies of most animal species		Ova
Scents secreted by animals which act like hormones on others		Pheromones
Lower part of the shell of a tortoise or turtle – also a chest protector in fencing (the sport!)		Plastron
Slowing down of metabolic rates in cold–blooded animals for part of the day or night, to save energy		Torpor
Furcula (from the Latin for "little fork") – a bone in birds' skeletons		Wishbone
Disease caught by man from animals (e.g. ringworm, rabies)		Zoonosis
Animal that looks like a plant (e.g. sea anemone)		Zoophyte

© Haydn Thompson 2017–22