Bizarre Organisms and Biological Adaptations

Vocabulary flashcards reviewing bizarre animal, insect, plant, and fungal adaptations described in the lecture notes.

Goblin Shark

A deep-sea shark with a paddle-like snout covered in electrosensitive pores to detect movement, whose jaws can open up to $111^\bot$ to shoot forward and consume prey.

Snowflake Eel

An eel possessing backward-facing sharp piercing teeth and a second set of jaws behind the skull that lunges forward to grasp prey, swallowing it whole (serving as the inspiration for the Xenomorph in Alien).

American Eel

An eel with a hard head and tail used to burrow into the ocean floor, though individuals frequently become stuck, mummify, or form a cyst and die trying to escape.

Sea Lamprey

A jawless parasitic fish that attaches to prey with keratinized teeth to feed on blood, capable of regenerating its spinal cord within a week.

Anglerfish

A deep-sea predator featuring biological camouflage $20\times$ blacker than a Sharpie, bacterial bioluminescence, extreme sexual dimorphism where females are $60\times$ larger than males, and male sexual parasitism.

RAG Genes (Anglerfish)

Dysfunctional immune genes in anglerfish that prevent the female from mounting an immune response against the parasitic male, enabling tissue fusion.

Tongue-Eating Louse

A parasite that enters through the gills of a fish, attaches to the base of the tongue, cuts off blood circulation until the organ atrophies and falls off, and physically replaces the host's tongue.

Botfly

A parasitic insect whose females glue eggs to mosquito abdomens; upon the mosquito feeding, barbed larvae burrow into warm-blooded hosts while delivering painkillers and antibiotics to avoid forming festering wounds.

Vampire Moth

An invasive moth found throughout most of Asia and Europe that uses a specialized toothed proboscis to penetrate skin.

Aye Aye

A primate characterized by a specialized long middle finger used as a grub dipstick and two inguinal nipples positioned near the groin.

Dead Man’s Fingers

A wood-eating fungus whose fruiting bodies produce and release spores along with deadly fungal toxins.

Crypt-Keeper Wasp

A parasitoid wasp that deposits eggs inside its cousins; the developing larvae consume and kill the host, ultimately bursting out of the victim's head.

Massospora Fungus

A fungal sexually transmitted pathogen that infects cicadas, causing their genitals to fall off and inducing behavioral mind control that drives infected males to mate with other males to spread spores.

Dragon’s Blood Tree

A tree capable of living for hundreds of years that produces blood-colored sap containing flavonoids, used traditionally by indigenous populations for its antibiotic medicinal properties.

Homo Sapiens

Termed the 'Beast of All Beasts,' a global super-predator driving rapid climate change characterized by a projected $1.5\,^\circ\text{C}$ global temperature increase.