Biology and Astronomy Comprehensive Review

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering animal feeding adaptations, dentition, defensive adaptations, ecology, micro-organisms, and solar and celestial astronomy.

Herbivore Bird Beak

A beak that is short, sturdy, and has a bent maxilla slightly longer than the mandible, allowing the bird to easily crush and pick up seeds.

Herbivore Bird Feet

Feet featuring four toes (three pointing forward and one pointing backward) that enable balancing while walking and curling around branches when perching in trees.

Carnivore Bird Beak

A large, strong, curved beak with a hooked downward maxilla longer than the mandible, sharp edges, and wide jaws, adapted to hold, tear, cut flesh, and swallow large pieces of prey.

Talons

Sharp, powerful claws on carnivore birds' feet (three toes forward, one backward) adapted to catch, hold, carry prey during flight, and defend.

Omnivore Bird Feeding Adaptations

Features including a long, narrow, slightly curved beak with upper and lower jaws of equal length and a tubular tongue to extract nectar from deep flowers, alongside small feet and claws not used for hunting.

Incisors

Teeth located in the front and middle of the jaw featuring a fairly sharp cutting edge, used to bite and cut food.

Canines

Sharp, pointed teeth situated next to the incisors, specialized for grabbing and tearing food.

Premolars

Teeth located between the canines and molars that possess broad surfaces with small, uneven, rounded knobs used to chew and grind food.

Molars

Teeth situated at the back of the mouth at the end of the jaw with broad crowns and large uneven knobs, specialized for chewing and grinding food.

Interdental Space

A gap between the teeth in herbivores (such as sheep) that holds grass to chew while the animal looks up for predators.

Rumen

The large stomach chamber in ruminants where swallowed grass and leaves are stored before being regurgitated and re-chewed.

Structural Adaptation

A physical characteristic of an organism's body—such as size, shape, color, or specialized limbs—that provides a survival advantage.

Functional Adaptation

A specialized internal physiological process that enhances an organism's survival, such as producing toxins, bitter defense chemicals, or protective eggshells.

Behavioural Adaptation

A specific instinctive or learned activity or modified behavior of a species—such as pack hunting, building nests, mating rituals, or playing dead—that aids survival.

Camouflage

A structural adaptation where an animal's shape, pattern, and coloration merge with its surroundings to mask its location, identity, and movement.

Warning Colours

Bright coloration displayed by poisonous or unpalatable organisms to warn and deter potential predators from consuming them.

Mimicry

An adaptation where an organism imitates the appearance, behavior, or sound of an unrelated organism for protection against predators or to attract prey.

Imbalanced Ecosystem

A disrupted ecosystem characterized by plant and animal extinctions, drastic shifts or disappearance of biotic and abiotic factors, and loss of natural resources.

Conservationists

Trained professionals who manage ecosystems by controlling invasive plant species, protecting indigenous wildlife and wetlands, and preventing pollution.

Adult Human Dental Formula

The mathematical representation of teeth on one side of the upper and lower jaws: $\frac{2.1.2.3}{2.1.2.3}$, yielding a total of $32$ teeth.

Micro-organisms

Microscopic organisms that cannot be seen with the naked human eye and require a microscope for observation.

Virus

The smallest, non-living, acellular microscopic agent that cannot perform life processes independently and requires a host cell to replicate.

Bacteria

Unicellular organisms larger than viruses that carry out life processes independently and exist in shapes including bacilli, cocci, and spirilla.

Fungi

Unicellular or multicellular saprotrophic micro-organisms (such as yeasts, moulds, and mushrooms) that act as decomposers and are used in fermentation.

Protists

Unicellular or multicellular organisms (such as algae, phytoplankton, and zooplankton) that form the foundational base of aquatic food webs.

Protozoa

Unicellular, microscopic, animal-like organisms that act as tiny carnivores feeding on other microbes.

Micro-organism Size Formula

The formula used to determine the actual size of a microscopic specimen: $\text{Size of object} = \frac{\text{Length of object (mm)} \times \text{number on scale}}{\text{Length of scale bar (mm)}}$.

Planet

A spherical celestial body that orbits a star, has sufficient mass for self-gravity, and has cleared its orbital path of other debris.

Terrestrial Planets

The four inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars) composed of a metallic core, rocky mantle, and thin solid crust, characterized by fast orbits and slow rotations.

Gas Giants

The four outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) composed primarily of hydrogen, helium, and methane, lacking a solid surface and possessing many moons.

Dwarf Planet

A spherical celestial body orbiting a star that lacks sufficient gravity to clear its orbital path of surrounding objects (examples include Pluto, Ceres, and Eris).

Gravity

The attractive force exerted by any object with mass upon nearby objects, keeping celestial bodies in stable, predictable orbits.

Asteroids

Metallic and rocky remnants left over from the formation of the solar system, measuring between $10\,\text{m}$ and $530\,\text{km}$ in diameter, mostly located between Mars and Jupiter.

Kuiper Belt

A doughnut-shaped ring of frozen ice, rock, and gas situated at the outer edge of the solar system just beyond Neptune's orbit.

Oort Cloud

A vast spherical shell of icy debris located far beyond the Kuiper Belt, serving as the source of long-period comets with orbits up to $30\,\text{million}$ years.

Comet

A celestial body composed of frozen dust, rock, and ice; when heated near the Sun, it vaporizes to create a glowing head and a streaming white tail millions of kilometers long.

Meteoroid

A free-floating piece of space rock or metal in outer space that is smaller than an asteroid.

Meteor

A meteoroid that enters a planet's atmosphere and vaporizes due to gas friction, creating a bright streak commonly known as a shooting star.

Meteorite

A space rock that survives passage through a planet's atmosphere without completely burning up and strikes the planetary surface.

Habitable Zone

The optimal orbital distance around a star where surface temperatures permit water to remain in liquid form to support living organisms.

Galaxy

A massive system containing billions to trillions of stars, dust, gases, and stellar remnants bound together by gravitational attraction.

Milky Way Galaxy

A giant spiral galaxy with multiple arms, a central bulge, and a central supermassive black hole, containing over $200\,\text{billion}$ stars.

Constellations

Recognizable configurations or patterns of stars visible in the night sky as seen from Earth, such as the Southern Cross.

Alpha Centauri

A three-star system containing Proxima Centauri that forms the closest star system to Earth beyond the Sun and serves as the brightest pointer star to the Southern Cross.

Light Year

An astronomical unit of distance representing how far light travels in one Julian year, equivalent to approximately $10 \times 10^{12}\,\text{km}$ ($10\,\text{trillion}\,\text{km}$).

Optical Telescope

An astronomical instrument designed to gather and focus visible light using refraction through lenses or reflection using mirrors.

Radio Telescope

An astronomical instrument specialized in detecting and recording radio-frequency emissions originating from celestial bodies.