Texas Fossils: An Amateur Collector's HandbookMatthews, William Henry
Science
Texas Fossils: An Amateur Collector's Handbook
Matthews, William Henry
Paleontology -- Texas
Phylum—one of the primary divisions of the animal or vegetable kingdoms.
Planispiral—shell coiled in one plane.
Pleistocene—earliest epoch of Quaternary period, Cenozoic era; follows
Pliocene epoch of Tertiary period, precedes Recent epoch of
Quaternary.
Pleural—referring to the side or ribs; in trilobites, refers to lateral
portions of thorax and pygidium.
Pliocene—latest epoch of Tertiary period of Cenozoic era; follows
Miocene epoch and precedes Pleistocene epoch of Quaternary period.
Polygonal—many sided or having many-sided plates.
Polyp—a many-tentacled aquatic coelenterate animal, typically
cylindrical or cup-shaped, as in corals.
Porcelaneous—like porcelain.
Pore—a very small opening.
Posterior—situated behind; to the rear.
Precambrian—that portion of geologic time before the Cambrian; divided
into Archeozoic era (Early Precambrian) and Proterozoic era (Late
Precambrian).
Protero—combining form meaning fore, former, or anterior in time (Greek
_proteros_, fore).
Proterozoic—youngest era of the Precambrian; follows the Archeozoic era
and precedes the Cambrian period of the Paleozoic era.
Protista—the organic kingdom including the simplest of all one-celled
organisms which possess various characters of both plants and animals;
bacteria, algae, foraminifers, radiolarians.
Protoconch—in mollusks, the initial chamber of shell.
Pyrite—a hard, brass-yellow mineral composed of iron sulfide; “fool’s
gold.”
Quaternary—the youngest period of the Cenozoic era, follows the Tertiary
period.
Radial symmetry—see Symmetry.
Reef—a mound-like or ridge-like elevation of the sea bottom which almost
reaches the surface of the water, composed primarily of organic
material and commonly formed by reef-building animals, such as corals
and oysters.
Replacement—type of fossilization whereby hard parts of organisms are
removed by solution accompanied by almost simultaneous deposition of
other substances in the resulting voids; mineralization.
Respiration—the process of oxygenation.
Rock—an aggregation of one or more minerals.
Rock-unit—divisions of rocks based on definite physical and lithologic
characteristics and not defined on the basis of geologic time alone;
groups, formations, members.
Rudistid—a Cretaceous pelecypod that does not exhibit the typical clam
or oyster shape; many are cone-shaped, resembling corals.
Saddle—in cephalopods, the forward flexure (curved toward the aperture)
of the suture or septum.
Scaphopod—an exclusively marine mollusk with a single-valved tusk-shaped
shell; member of class Scaphopoda, phylum Mollusca.
Scavenger—an animal that feeds on organic refuse.
Sedentary—stationary in life, not moving from place to place.
Sediment—material that has been deposited by settling from a
transportation agent such as water or air; typically composed of
weathered rock fragments.
Sedimentary rock—rocks formed from the accumulation and lithification of
sediments.
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