Definition: a thin membranous, sometimes alveolated sac in the dorsal portion of the abdominal cavity. Contains a varying mixture of gases, not identical to the composition of air.
Definition: A taxon is Vulnerable when the best available evidence indicates that it meets any of the criteria A to E for Vulnerable, and it is therefore considered to be facing a high risk of extinction in the wild.
Definition: An aquatic biome that comprises systems of open-ocean and unprotected coastal habitats, characterized by exposure to wave action, tidal fluctuation, and ocean currents as well as systems that largely resemble these. Water in the marine biome is generally within the salinity range of seawater: 30 to 38 ppt.
Definition: The benthopelagic zone biome comprises regions of the marine water column which usually coincide with the benthic boundary layer (BBL) - the layer of isothermal and isohaline water contiguous to the sea floor. A general reversal in the declining gradient of pelagic biomass may be observed here, perhaps explained by viable nutrition on the sea floor being resuspended by bottom currents. This zone typically extends 100 m above the seafloor, but may reach upto1000 m during benthic storms.
Definition: A habitat that is in or on a body of water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids (<0.5 grams dissolved salts per litre).
Definition: Capable of creating a new organism by combining the genetic material of two gametes, which may come from two parent organisms or from a single organism, in the case of self-fertilizing hermaphrodites.
Definition: Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle (MNHN), Paris, France. URL for main institutional website: http://www.mnhn.fr/museum/foffice/science/science/sommaire.xsp
Definition: Relative to pinhole eyes, lens eyes have greatly improved resolution and image brightness. The lens converges incoming rays of light, thereby reducing the angle over which each photoreceptor receives light, and forming an image focused on the retina. Most lens eyes have "accommodation"; they can focus an image either by physically moving the lens toward or away from the retina or by using eye muscles to adjust the shape of the lens.
