A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Select the first letter of the word from the list above to jump to appropriate section of the glossary.
- Abdomen
The portion of the body that contains the intestine, often the reproductive organs, and usually the gills.
- Abdominal
Pertaining to the abdomen.-
- Amphipod
A shrimp-like crustacean, little difference between the thoracic and abdominal body segments, the heart and gills inside the thorax rather than the
abdomen, no carapace, and usually with a laterally compressed body (including whale lice and the skeleton shrimp).-
- Arthropod
An invertebrate animal with an external skeleton (made of chitin) and jointed legs (including the insects, spiders and crustaceans).
- Baleen whale
A whale that, rather than having teeth for eating, has plates of fingernail-like material hanging down from the upper jaw that are used to strain small animals
from water.-
- Benthic
Living on the sea floor-
- Bivalve
A mollusc with a bilaterally symmetrical two-part external shell that completely encloses the body (including clams, oysters, and mussels).
- Blow-hole
Each of the two holes (constituting the nostrils) at the top of the head in whales through which they breathe or "blow".
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- Breaching
When an animal swims from depth toward the surface of the sea, breaks the surface and rises high into the air (sometimes coming completely out of the
water), and then falls back into the sea (for example, a behavior seen in the Hump-backed Whale).
- Carapace
An external covering over the segments of the thorax (sometimes fused with more posterior body segments) in many crustaceans, often extending down the
side of the body and enclosing the legs (sometimes enclosing the whole body like a shell).-
- Carrion
The decaying flesh of a dead animal-
- Cephalopod
A mollusc with a greatly reduced shell (compared to other molluscs, for example, the snails) and tentacles (including squids, octopuses, cuttlefish, and
nautiloids).-
- Copepod
A crustacean with a cylindrical body in ten segments, a cephalothorax (with appendages on the thoracic segments, the first pair of which is modified into
maxillipeds used for feeding) and abdomen (without appendages), long and elaborate primary antennae, and two appendages on the tail that are often
spectacularly elongate and divided (almost all are less than a few millimeters in length and are herbivorous, taking phytoplankton from the water column by
filter feeding).-
- Crustacean
An arthropod with five pairs of appendages on the head (including two pairs of antennae for sensing of the environment, a pair of mandibles for manipulating
food, and two pairs maxillae for feeding), and separate thoracic and abdominal areas (often with visible segments in each) with appendages attached to
each body segment (including decapods, copepods, amphipods, and many other forms).
- Decapod
A crustacean with the carapace tightly enclosing the gills, the first three pairs of thoracic appendages modified as maxillipeds for feeding, the last five pairs
of thoracic appendages modified as legs (the first pair often enlarged as chelipeds, commonly called claws)(including lobsters, shrimps and crabs).
- Ecoprovince
A local area (scale tens of kilometers to a few hundred kilometers) with specific weather, ocean wave patterns and ocean stratification, land forms and
populations of plants and animals.-
- Ecoregion
A restricted geographic area (scale usually in hundreds of kilometers) with particular weather patterns, ocean currents and depths, drainage, and communities
of plants and animals.-
- Ecozone
A broad geographic area (scale usually in thousands of kilometers) in which there are distinctive climate patterns, ocean conditions, types of landscapes and
species of plants and animals.-
- Euphausid
A shrimp-like crustacean, usually bioluminescent, with the carapace not tightly enclosing the gills (as in decapods), lacking maxillipeds for feeding, that filter
feeds by straining small animals and plants from the water column using the six pairs of thoracic appendages (most are from the genus Euphausia; in the
Antarctic, Euphausia superba is the primary species, sometime attaining densities of over 1000 animals per m3 of water, appearing from the air like a giant
single-celled animal slowly changing its shape, and sustaining large populations of animals, including the Blue Whale, the largest animal ever known).
- Fledge
Begin to fly
- Flukes
The two parts which constitute the large triangular tail of the whale.
- Habitat
The area where an organism lives, including its environment (the physical forces, substances, and organisms that surround the organism and directly affect it)
and external factors (forces, substances, and organisms) that indirectly affect the organism.
- Invertebrate
An animal which does not possess a backbone; all invertebrates also do not have internal skeletons made of bone or cartilage (including the arthropods,
molluscs, protozoans, sponges, annelid worms, and many more obscure animals).
- Lead
An area of open water (usually linear) between ice floes, or between floes and fast ice, where ice has split apart as a result of the movement between these
floes.
- Macroalgae
Multicellular, large algae, resembling vascular plants but lacking advanced reproductive and water management systems (e.g., kelp).-
- Maxilla
An appendage that has been modified to serve as a lower jaw in chewing.-
- Maxilliped
An appendage that has been modified to manipulate food (particularly to bring food to the mouth and hold them so that other mouth parts can tear off pieces
to be chewed and swallowed).-
- Mollusc
An invertebrate animal lacking an external skeleton, but possessing an external shell lined with a specialized epidermal membrane called the mantle (much
reduced in some species, such as the squids).-
- Moult
Shed fur or feathers (for example, foxes moult their thick winter fur in summer, regrowing the fur over the summer in preparation for the following winter).
- Pelagic
Free swimming throughout the water column (not restricted to specific micro-environments like the sea floor).-
- Phytoplankton
Algae that float in the water column (some of which are able to migrate short distances up and down in the water with changes in sunlight from night to day).-
- Planktonic
Floating in the water column and unable to move more than short distances under its own power.-
- Pod
A small herd or "school" or seals or whales.-
- Primary Production
Assembly from raw materials (sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water) of substances (sugars) that are later transformed (into starches, nucleic acids, amino acids,
proteins, and other chemicals) and incorporated into the tissues of plants; most other production of biological tissues results from transformation of organic
chemicals previously made through primary production and subsequent transformations done within plants (and which is called secondary production).
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- Spout
The column of spray thrown into the air by a whale in the act of respiration.
- Substrate
A surface upon which an organism grows, sometimes by using chemicals of particles in the material as food (also used to describe materials that can
become involved in chemical reactions, particularly where those reactions are mediated by the enzymes of living organisms).
- Talus
- Weathered rock which has fallen from and accumulated at the bottom of a cliff.
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- Thoracic
Pertaining to the thorax.-
- Thorax
The portion of the body containing the stomach (sometimes the gills).
- Whelp
To bear young (that is, to have pups or cubs).
- Zooplankton
Animals that float in the water column (some of which are able to move short distances in search of food).
Revised: July 15, 1996.
Copyright © 1995 by Government of Canada, Canadian Hydrographic Service.
All trademarks or product names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.