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Rainforest Glossary

EARTH The Earth is the third planet from the sun.

ECDYSIS Ecdysis is molting. When an insect molts it loses its old exoskeleton and grows a larger one to replace it. Caterpillars molt four to five times during their development.

ECOSYSTEM An ecosystem is the interrelationships between all of the living things in an area.

ECOTOURIST Ecotourists are people who visit the rainforest (or other ecologically sensitive areas) while on vacation.

ECTOTHERMIC Ectotherms are animals whose internal temperature changes with the environment. They rely upon the external temperature and their behavior (like sunning themselves) to regulate their body temperature. Amphibians, most fish, and most reptiles are ectothermic.

EGG Some animals hatch from eggs.

ELECTRIC EEL A fish that can generate electricity, the electric eel lives in the Amazon River basin of South America.

EMBRYO An embryo is a very young, unborn organism.

EMERALD TREE BOA The emerald tree boa, Corallus caninus, is a green snake with white bands. It grows to be up to 7.25 feet (2.2m) long. It lives in trees and shrubs near water (like swamps and marshes in rain forests) in the lower Amazon basin (in Brazil) and in Guyana and Suriname. This snake catches food with its long teeth then squeezes it. It eats birds and rodents. This snake is nocturnal (it is most active at night) and bears live young. Neonates (newborn snakes) are deep brown-orange with white bars, and are about 1 ft long. This snake has a life span of 15-20 years.

EMERGENTS Emergents are giant trees in a rainforest that are much higher (up to 270 feet or 81 m) than the average canopy height. The emergents house many birds and insects in a very dry environment.

ENDANGERED SPECIES An endangered species is a group of animals that is dwindling in numbers and may go extinct soon.

ENDEMIC Endemic means native to a specific region.

ENDOTHERMIC Endotherms maintain a relatively constant internal temperature. Endothermic animals generate their own body heat to maintain their body temperature, which is usually higher than that of the surroundings. Heat from the bloodstream circulates through the body in order to maintain the animal's temperature. Birds and mammals are endothermic.

EQ The EQ (encephalization quotient) is a ratio of the mass of an animal's brain to the mass of its body. This helps determine the relative intelligence of extinct animals. Dromaeosaurid dinosaurs had the highest EQ among the dinosaurs.

EQUATOR The equator is an imaginary circle around the earth, halfway between the north and south poles.

EQUATORIAL RAINFOREST Tropical rainforests are warm, very wet forests that do not freeze (the temperature remains over 75°F=24°C) and do not get extremely hot. Tropical rainforests cover about 7% of the Earth's surface, in a band around the equator. They are also called tropical rainforests.

ERA Two or more geological periods comprise an Era, which is hundreds of millions of years in duration.

ERUCIFORM Eruciform means having a caterpillar-like shape (cylindrical with a well-developed head and legs). The larvae of butterflies and moths (caterpillars) are eruciform.

ESTUARY An estuary is where a river meets the seas.

EVOLUTION Evolution is a process in which the gene pool of a population gradually (over millions of years) changes in response to environmental pressures, natural selection, and genetic mutations. All forms of life came into being by this process.

EXOSKELETON An exoskeleton is an external skeleton, a tough, structural body armor made of chitin. Arthropods (insects, arachnids, trilobites, crustaceans, etc.) have segmented exoskeletons.

EXTINCT An animal species that is extinct has died out. Most animal species that ever existed have gone extinct, including all the dinosaurs.

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