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Rainforest Glossary

CACAO The cacao plant (Theobroma cacao) is a evergreen flowering tree native to wet, warm forests of South and Central America. This tree grows to 40 feet (12 m) tall. After flowering, 10 to 14-inch long red fruit pods develop. In each pod are almond-shaped cacao beans and pulp. Chocolate is made from the beans in the pods of the cacao plant.

CAIMAN The caiman (Caiman crocodilus) is a widely distributed, medium-sized crocodilian. It is about 6.5-8 ft (2-2.5 m) long. The caiman is widely distributed in central American and northern South America, ranging from southern Mexico to Peru and Brazil. The caiman is the most widely distributed of the New World crocodilians; it is found in almost all of the lowland wetlands and riverine habitats in its range. It prefers still, fresh water. Juveniles are yellow with black spots and bands; adults are a dull olive green with a whitish belly. These carnivores eat fish (including piranha), amphibians, reptiles and water birds with their 72-78 teeth. Females lay about 22 eggs in late summer in soil-and-vegetation nests.

CAPYBARA The capybara is the world's largest rodent. It has no tail and partially webbed feet and lives on river banks.

CARNIVORE Carnivores are animals that eat meat. They usually have sharp teeth and powerful jaws.

CARRYING CAPACITY The carrying capacity of an area is the maximum number of animals of a given species that can live there. This number is limited by the amount of food in that region, by the amount of sheltering area required by the species, and other factors. The carrying capacity of a region is very difficult to calculate.

CASSOWARY A huge, flightless bird from Australia with a helmet-like crest on its head.

CATERPILLAR A caterpillar is the larval stage of butterflies and moths. Caterpillars eat almost constantly and molt many times as they grow.

CELL A cell is the basic organizational unit of living organisms.

CELL A cell is a closed area of an insect wing that is bounded by veins.

CENOZOIC ERA The "Age of Mammals" (65 million years ago to today), saw the emergence of familiar life forms, humans, the modern look of the continents, and a cooling climate. The Cenozoic followed the Mesozoic Era.

CHIMPANZEE Chimpanzees are very intelligent primates.

CHITIN Chitin is a tough, colorless nitrogenous polysaccharide that is a major component of the hard exoskeleton of insects (and other arthropods).

CHLAMYDOSAURUS Chlamydosaurus (meaning "caped lizard") is a rare, modern-day frilled lizard native to New Guinea and North Australia. Its frill is 7 - 14 inch (18-34 cm) flap of skin that completely circles its head. It opens this brightly-colored frill to frighten enemies. Adults are over 8 inches (20 cm) long. These climbing lizards live in trees in humid forests and eat cicadas, ants, spiders and smaller lizards. It can run quadrupedally and bipedally, with the front legs off the ground. Adult females lay 8 to 14 eggs per clutch in Spring and Summer. Classification: Class Reptilia, Order: Squamata, Family: Agamidae, Genus Chlamydosaurus, Species kingii (named by Gray in 1825).

CHORDATE Chordates are animals that have a notochord and gill clefts at some point in their life. They have a hollow nerve cord that ends in a brain. Chordates include the vertebrates, cephalochordates (e.g. amphioxus), and urochordates (e.g. sea squirts).

CHRYSALIS The chrysalis is the pupa of a butterfly.

CINCHONA TREE The cinchona tree is a tropical tree that is the primary source of the anit-malarial drug quinine. Quinine is found in the bark of the cinchona tree. Quinine is a chemical that cures malaria, a deadly tropical disease carried by mosquitoes. There are many species of cinchona; they range from about 15 to 20 meters tall. The cinchona tree is native to rainforests of the eastern slope of the Amazonian Andes of South America, where it is called the "fever tree." Classification: Family Rubiaceae, Genus Cinchona, Species C. officinalis, C. ledgeriana, C. uccirubra, C. calisaya, and others.

CLADOGRAM Cladograms are branching diagrams that depict species divergence from common ancestors. They show the distribution and origins of shared characteristics. Cladograms are testable hypotheses of phylogenetic relationships.

CLASS In classification, a class is a group of related or similar organisms. A class contains one or more orders. A group of similar classes forms a phylum.

CLASSIFICATION The classification of organisms helps in the their study. Cladistics is a method based on common ancestry; the Linnean system is based on a simple hierarchical structure.

CLAW Many dinosaurs were armed with claws on front and/or rear feet. These claws varied widely in length, shape, placement, and function (defense and/or offense). When alive, claws were sheathed in a horny, keratinous material much like our fingernails, making the claw even bigger, longer and sharper.

CLUB A club is the thickened end of a butterfly's antenna.

COATI (pronounced ko-WAH-ti) Coati (also called coatimundi) are long-nosed, long-tailed mammals from the Americas.

COCKATOO Cockatoos are birds with a large, feathery crest and a hooked bill.

COCOON A cocoon is a protective covering, made of silk, which protects a moth pupa (and some other insects). The cocoon is spun from the abdomen of the larva (caterpillar) before it pupates.

COLD BLOODED Cold blooded (or ectothermic) animals rely upon the temperature and their behavior (like sunning themselves) to regulate their body temperature. Snakes and lizards are ectothermic.

COMMENSALISM Commensalism is a situation in which two organisms are associated in a relationship in which one benefits from the relationship and the other is not affected much. The two animals are called commensals. The shark and the pilot fish (and remora) are commensals - the pilot fish benefits much more than the shark. Another example is bromeliads (plants living on trees in rainforests) and frogs; the frogs get shelter and water from the bromeliad but the bromeliad is unaffected. Commensalism is a type of symbiosis.

COMPOUND EYE Insects (like butterflies and moths) have compound eyes. These eyes are made up of many hexagonal lens/corneas which focus light from each part of the insect's field of view onto a rhabdome (the equivalent of our retina). An optic nerve then carries this information to the insect's brain. They see very differently from us; they can see ultraviolet rays (which are invisible to us).

CONDENSATION Condensation is the process in which a vapor (gas) is cooled to the liquid phase. Clouds are formed by the condensation of atmospheric water vapor.

CONIFER Conifers are evergreen trees and shrubs that bear naked seeds in cones. Examples of conifers include pine, fir, and spruce trees.

CONSERVATION Conservation is the wise use of natural resources (plants, animals, minerals, water, etc.) so that they are not damaged and will be in good condition in the future.

CONSUMER A consumer is a living thing that eats other living things to survive. It cannot make its own food (unlike most plants, which are producers). Primary consumers eat producers, secondary consumers eat primary consumers, and so on. There are always many more primary consumers than secondary consumers, etc.

CONTINENTAL DRIFT Continental drift is the movement of the Earth's continents. The land masses are hunks of Earth's crust that float on the molten core.

COYPU. Coypus (also called nutrias) are semi-aquatic rodents that are originally from South America

CREMASTER A cremaster is a support hook (or a cluster of small hooks) at the abdominal (hind) end of a pupa.

CREPUSCULAR Crepuscular animals are most active during the dawn and dusk (compare with diurnal and nocturnal). Many wild cats are crepuscular.

CRESTED OROPENDOLA The crested oropendola is a tropical black bird that builds long, pendulous nests.

CROCHETS Crochets are hook-like spines are the end of the prolegs of caterpillars.

CROCODILIAN Crocodilians are the order of archosaurs that includes alligators, crocodiles, gavials, etc. They evolved during the late Triassic period, and are a type of reptile.

CUCKOO Cuckoos are birds whose call sounds like its name. Many cuckoos live in rainforest canopies throughout the world.

CUTICLE The cuticle is the outer, non-cellular layer of an insects chitinous exoskeleton.

CYCAD Cycads are primitive seed plants that dominated the Jurassic period. They are palm-like trees that live in warm climates. These gymnosperms have long, divided leaves and produce large cones. Only a few species of Cycads still exist today.

CYDNO LONGWING Heliconius cydno, also called the Cydno Longwing, is a butterfly found in tropical rainforests of Central and South America. The host plant is passiflora (passion vine). Classification Family Nymphalidae, Subfamily Heliconiinae (Heliconians, Fritillaries), Genus Heliconius (Longwings), Species H. cydno.

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