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salamander (sal'e man'der) n. any tailed amphibian of the order Caudata, having soft, moist, scaless skin usually aquatic as a larva and semi-terrestrial as an adult.

salt and pepper We coined the term "salt and pepper" to describe the suspicious white spots we see on turtles. Our experience is that "salt and pepper" usually develops into tumors by the next summer.

scientific name The "scientific name" of an animal consists of two levels of its taxonomic classification, the "genus" and "species." Scientific names are in Latin. They are usually printed in italics, with the genus capitalized. Thus the scientific name of the tiger is "Panthera (genus) tigris (species)." Sometimes a species is further subdivided into subspecies, and the subspecies name is added to the scientific name. Thus the Siberian tiger's scientific name is "Panthera tigris altaica". Once the genus and species have been mentioned, they are usually abbreviated in subsequent occurrences (e.g. the Siberian tiger's scientific name would be written "P. t. altaica".)

scorpion A poisonous animal known for its painful and sometimes fatal sting, the scorpion inhabits the warm, dry regions of the world. It is a relative of the spider, tick, mite, and king crab. Together they make up the class Arachnida. Like all arachnids, scorpions have eight legs. They also have two other pairs of appendages: the small chelicerae used to tear apart prey and the large clawlike pedipalps used as feelers and for grasping prey. Each of the 800 scorpion species has an elongated body and a segmented tail that is tipped with a sharp, hollow stinger through which the poison is squeezed. The tail, actually a narrow postabdomen, is carried arched over the back. Most scorpions prefer to retreat rather than to fight and do not sting humans unless molested. Scorpions range in size from half an inch to 7 inches (13 to 175 millimeters). They are nocturnal and feed mainly on insects and spiders. Scorpions grasp prey with their large, powerful pedipalps and tear it apart, sucking the tissue fluids. Large prey is usually paralyzed before it is eaten. Scorpions are seen together only when they are fighting or mating. After mating, the female may kill and eat the male. About 20 to 40 young are born live, encased in a thin membrane that the mother scorpion helps break open. She then stretches out flat in order to permit them to climb on her back. They cling for about a week, living on stored embryonic yolk.

sea anemone From tidal pools on rocky shores to the depths of the oceans live beautiful flowerlike animals the sea anemones. When the tide is out they look like sodden lumps of jelly, but as the water flows over them they expand into strange and lovely forms. Many kinds are found on both coasts of North America, but those in tropical waters are the most brilliantly colored. Anemones vary in size from a fraction of an inch in length and diameter to about 5 feet (1.5 meters) in diameter. The soft body is cylindrical and may be thick and short or long and slender. The spreading base is usually attached by a suckerlike disk to a hard surface such as a rock, wharf timber, seashell, or the back of a crab. Most anemones seldom move; some may glide very slowly or move in a slow somersaulting fashion. Some species have no disk; instead they burrow deep into the sand or mud, exposing only their mouths. Others float near the ocean surface, with their mouths pointing downward.

The anemone's mouth opening, at the upper end of the body, is surrounded by several circles of hollow, petallike, usually colorful tentacles. These vary in number but are usually present in some multiple of six. In each tentacle are thousands of threadlike tubes, each one armed with a poisoned barb called a nematocyst. When a shrimp, small fish, or other marine animal touches a tentacle, the animal is stung and paralyzed by these barbs. It is then drawn into the anemone's body cavity. Some anemones eat only microorganisms. Anemones reproduce by fertilization of eggs or by fission that is, by splitting lengthwise into two halves. In some species the base breaks into fragments that grow into new individuals. Sea anemones are members of the invertebrate order Actiniaria, class Anthozoa. This class includes some of the corals. There are more than a thousand species of sea anemones.

sea cucumber , sea cucumbers have developed a number of curious defense mechanisms. When disturbed, some sea cucumbers can expel their internal organs and then grow new ones. Others discharge sticky filaments or exude toxins. Sea cucumbers are primitive, undersea animals that resemble garden cucumbers. They are found in all oceans, mostly in shallow water. The soft, cylindrical body varies in length from about 3/4 inch to 6 1/2 feet (2 to 200 centimeters). Most species have five rows of tube feet that run the length of their bodies. The mouth is surrounded by ten or more tentacles that are used to gather sand and mud, from which the animal extracts any organic matter for food. The sea cucumbers constitute the class Holothuroidea of the phylum Echinodermata, which also includes the starfish and sea urchin. In China the flesh of sea cucumbers is used in soups and is called beche-de-mer, or trepang.

sea horse The sea horse has a head and neck shaped like a horse, and it swims in an upright position. The body is encased in bony, ringlike plates studded with spines. The long tail curls forward at the tip. Like a monkey's tail, the sea horse's tail can grasp objects, and the sea horse often curls it around the stems of vegetation to hold itself in place. The fish's long, tubelike snout ends in a tiny mouth, and the sea horse's eyes move independently of each other. One of the most curious characteristics of sea horses is the way they reproduce. The male, not the female, carries the fertilized eggs. On the male's abdomen is a pocket called a brood pouch, which resembles the pouch of a kangaroo. The female lays her eggs up to several hundred at a time in the male's pouch, where they remain until they hatch. At that time the male contorts his body and expels the young through the single opening in the pouch. The young emerge as miniature adults, each about 3/8 inch (1 centimeter) long. They do not return to the shelter of the pouch, for the opening is too small to admit them. They must fend for themselves, hiding from their enemies in seaweed and coral.

Sea horses live in warm and temperate seas. They are weak swimmers and usually live along the shore among seaweed and other plants, to which they cling by their tails. They swim very slowly and stiffly, with seeming dignity. They propel themselves by rapid rippling movements of the single, soft-rayed fin on their backs, and they rise and sink by adjusting the volume of gas within their swim bladders. They feed on small organisms swimming in the water, sucking the animals quickly into their mouths. With the pipefishes, the sea horses make up the family Syngnathidae. There are perhaps two dozen species of sea horses, ranging in length from about 1 1/2 to 12 inches (3.8 to 30 centimeters). They are popular aquarium animals and are used in some societies to treat various ailments.

sea urchin . Spiny creatures that live on the ocean floor, usually on hard surfaces, are sea urchins. They are often purplish or reddish in color and vary greatly in size. With their globular, spine-covered bodies they may seem very unlike starfishes, but they actually have the same fundamental structure. Five bands of pores, which accommodate the urchin's tube feet, run over the test, or internal skeleton, from the mouth at the bottom surface upward to the anus at the top surface. The sea urchin resembles a starfish with its five arms folded up and meeting at the center of the upper body.

From nodules on the test arise movable spines and pedicellariae. Both may be poisonous. Sea urchins may move about by using their tube feet, just as starfishes do, or by "walking" on their spines.

Sea urchins feed mostly on plant material. The mouth has a complex dental apparatus called Aristotle's lantern, which also may be venomous, consisting of five teeth radially arranged. The teeth can be pushed out of the mouth to scrape food from rocks and can cut larger food into small pieces.

sea weed Many other kinds of seaweed are found all over the world. They are certain species of red, green, and brown marine algae, and they may grow in both fresh and salt water. Seaweeds are generally anchored to the sea bottom or to some solid structure by rootlike holdfasts that serve only to secure the plants, not to extract nutrition as do the roots of higher plants (see Plant). Seaweeds range in size from mosslike carpets of red algae, seen at low tides, to giant kelps, sometimes more than 100 feet (30 meters) long, with tough, leathery, rootlike branches.

Seaweeds often grow in masses in shallow water, usually at depths of 165 feet (50 meters) or less. Those at the high-water mark, which are often exposed to air, differ from those at lower levels, where air is scarce. Seaweeds help to oxygenate water and keep it pure. They also provide food for smaller fishes.

seed Flowering plants make new plants by means of seeds. Inside the plant's seed is a baby plant called the embryo. In the ground, under the right conditions of warmth and moisture, the embryo begins to grow. It breaks out of the seed coat and pushes up through the soil into the sunshine. It develops into a plant that in turn will produce new seeds.

When the seeds are ripe, they must leave the parent plant. Every seed has some way of traveling. Some may travel only a few inches. Others may travel many miles. If all seeds fell to the ground directly beneath the parent plant, they would be too crowded and too shaded to grow. They must find good soil and plenty of space and sunshine if they are to develop into strong, healthy plants.

semelparity Referring to a species whose animals only reproduce once

sexing turtles Marine turtles are not the easiest creatures in the world to sex. The only obvious physical characteristic that allows you to tell male from female is the size of the male's tail, but only after the male is sexually mature. In general, we refer to most turtles as female.

shark Fossil records indicate that the first sharks lived some 300 million years ago, and by about 100 million to 70 million years ago, most of the modern sharks had evolved. Sharks are among the oldest living things, and they have remained essentially the same since the modern sharks first appeared. The approximately 200 to 250 species of sharks live in all the oceans of the world. The great majority live in temperate and tropical regions, though the Greenland shark lives in the cold Arctic waters and the huge basking shark is at home in the seas around Antarctica. Nurse sharks spend most of their time at the bottom of shallow water. The Portuguese and recently discovered megamouth sharks live in the deepest parts of the ocean. Despite the shark's reputation for viciousness, only a few species of sharks are known to attack humans. Some sharks, including the thresher, brown, and lemon sharks, are fished commercially for food. The mako is a highly prized sport fish.

shrimp are long, slender crustaceans that live in marine, brackish, or freshwater habitats throughout the world. They are particularly abundant in the warmer seas. The claws on their front appendages are usually small and are not effective as pincers. Many species have protective spines on the front of the head. Shrimp species range in size from less than an inch long to lengths of more than 8 inches (20 centimeters). Although the shrimp of commercial markets (primarily genus Penaeus) are usually brown, many species are brightly colored and some glow at night. Most shrimp eat small floating organisms, such as plankton, or feed on dead organic material.

snails and slugs There are more than 40,000 different species of snails and slugs throughout the world, and they are remarkably well adapted to survival. They may be found almost everywhere on land, in trees, in freshwater ponds and streams, and in salt water from shoreline to ocean depths. Snails have shells; slugs do not.

Snails and slugs are mollusks, a taxonomic phylum that includes the oyster, clam, mussel, octopus, and squid. All mollusks have soft bodies and a flap of tissue, called the mantle, that surrounds the main body of the animal (see Mollusks). Snails and slugs also have a distinct head and a broad, flat mass behind the head the so-called foot. The animals glide on this foot and so are called gastropods, which means "belly-footed."

snake (snäk) - n. any limbless, scaly elongated reptile of the suborder Serpentes, comprising of venomous and non-venomous species.

species A taxonomic division that generally refers to a group of animals which are similar in structure and descent and are able to breed among themselves.

spider The word spider derives from an Old English verb spinnan, meaning "to spin." Spiders are the most abundant and diverse of all terrestrial predators. Generally harmless to humans, spiders feed almost exclusively on insects and are widespread in habitats that range from tundra to tropical lowland forests. They play a large role in controlling populations of insects, including those insects that cause human disease. Spiders range in length from less than 4/100 inch (0.1 centimeter) to more than 4 inches (10 centimeters). They have two body parts and eight legs. The spider's head and thorax are combined into one body segment, called the cephalothorax, and the abdomen constitutes the second body segment. Each leg has seven segments, and on the tip of the legs of many spiders are two tiny claws. Web weavers use these claws, in addition to their notched hairs, to walk on their webs without sticking to them. Like insects, spiders have a hard cuticle, or body shell, called an exoskeleton. The cuticle covers the cephalothorax and legs and prevents the spider from losing moisture and drying out. In addition, the cuticle provides the spider with structural support. Spiders also have an internal skeleton that is actually an extension of the external cuticle. This internal skeleton serves as a surface for muscle attachment. Unlike insects, spiders have no antennae. They do, however, have two appendages near their mouths that are often confused with insect antennae. These structures, called pedipalps, are used by spiders to manipulate their prey while feeding. The palps of immature males are expanded and look like boxing gloves. As the males mature the palps are transformed into highly complex organs that are used to inseminate females. The female's palps are slender.

sponges . It would be quite a feat for a person to drink 64 glasses of water every day, but in effect that is just what some sponges do. They filter that much water through their bodies every 24 hours, absorbing oxygen from the water and feeding on waterborne food particles. Sponges are among the most primitive multicellular animals alive. They lack specialized organs and tissues for breathing, eating, and eliminating wastes; instead, these tasks are taken care of by individual cells. Approximately 5,000 species of sponges have been described. They live throughout the world, from intertidal zones to depths of more than 28,000 feet (8,500 meters), and from the tropical waters of the Bahamas to the frigid Antarctic. Only about 20 species live in fresh water. Sponges live attached to the sea bottom or to a hard object. Some affix themselves by means of a single stalk, while others cover the object like moss covers a rock.

spores . The microscopic, one-celled organisms by which bacteria, fungi, and green plants reproduce are called spores. By means of a process called asexual reproduction, spores are able to grow into new individuals without uniting with another reproductive cell. Thus spores are distinguished from gametes, which are reproductive cells that must unite with gametes of the opposite sex in order to form a new organism. The latter process is called sexual reproduction. A spore cell consists of a cell wall that encloses a mass of cytoplasm and a nucleus. Some spores germinate quickly; others remain dormant for long periods. Active spores are produced in large numbers and may be dispersed over great distances by wind, water, or animals. They have thin cell walls that allow them to germinate quickly. Dormant spores have strong cell walls that protect them from environmental extremes and prevent them from germinating immediately.

squid Squids are dwellers of the deep and open seas, unlike the cuttlefish and octopus, which are more commonly found near shores. They are arrow-shaped, with a triangular fin on either side of the end of the body. Those that dwell in deep waters are luminescent. The little sea arrows, or flying squids, are about 12 inches long. As their names imply, they are incredibly swift in motion. They travel in schools. They are abundant off the Atlantic coast of North America.

Giant squids are the subject of most of the legends of deep-sea monsters. The giant squids off the northeastern coast of North America often attain a length of 55 feet. The arms may be 35 feet long, and the body 20 feet long. The weight is nearly a thousand pounds. Each sucker is almost two inches wide, and the eye opening is a foot wide. The giant squid is sometimes called "devilfish," a name also given to the largest octopuses and to the manta ray.

starfish There are about 1,800 species of starfishes, ranging in color from brown to orange to pink. Most adult starfishes reach diameters of from 8 to 12 inches (20 to 30 centimeters). The starfish body consists of a disk with a mouth in the center of the underside and a number of radiating arms, or rays. Most species have five arms, though many species have more than five, and some have as many as 50. Many starfishes can grow another arm if they lose one.

Starfish bodies are highly flexible, but they can make them surprisingly rigid by means of skeletal plates embedded in their flesh. Blunt spines project from these plates. In addition some starfishes are covered with pincerlike organs called pedicellariae. At the tip of each of the starfish's arms are a light-sensitive eyespot and delicate tentacles that are thought to be sensitive to chemical stimuli.

The starfish's upper surface contains tiny holes that admit water into the animal's water-vascular system. This system includes a number of canals that extend into the starfish's arms and connect to numerous, usually sucker-tipped, protruding tube feet. The hydraulic pressure of the circulating water extends the tube feet, and longitudinal muscles in the feet contract them. By this means, and with the aid of its suckers, the starfish can creep in any direction over the ocean floor.

Most starfishes feed mainly on slow-moving or stationary animals, particularly clams, oysters, and snails. The starfish mounts the mollusk and, using its suckered feet, pulls apart the two halves of the shell. Then it extends its stomach out through its mouth into the shell and releases enzymes that digest the mollusk's body. The digested material is transported into the starfish's stomach and then into digestive glands within its arms. Small prey are usually swallowed whole into the stomach.

stork Storks are large, long-legged birds that range in height from about 2 feet (0.6 meter) to more than 5 feet (1.5 meters). Their pointed bills are long and heavy, and all or part of their head and neck may be bare of feathers and brightly colored. They fly, alternately flapping and soaring, with legs trailing and necks outstretched.

Storks lack a fully developed syrinx, or vocal organ, and so have no voice, but they may grunt, hiss, or, when excited, clatter their bills loudly. During the mating season the male stork performs a remarkable stiff-legged dance, rattling its bill and leaping from the ground with extended wings flapping. The stork's nest, a large platform of twigs, is built by both sexes usually in trees or on rock ledges. The birds feed on insects, frogs, fishes, and small mammals.

swamps, marshes and bogs Wetlands are usually classified as swamps, marshes, or bogs, according to the type of soil and plant life they contain. Swamps and marshes both occur in low-lying areas near rivers or on flat areas along coasts between the high and low watermarks. Both swamps and marshes have mineral soils because they have access to mineral-rich groundwater. The difference between the two types of wetland is that swamp plant life consists largely of trees, while marsh plant life is dominated by grasses. A bog has spongy, peaty soil. It contains almost no minerals because the primary source of water in a bog is rainwater, which contains few minerals. Consequently, bog plant life consists of simple plants that can subsist on less nourishing soil mosses, sedges, and reeds, for example.

symbiosis Close living arrangements between two different species is called symbiosis. The word comes from the Greek word meaning "state of living together." Usually the two organisms are in close physical contact, with one living on or in the other. In some cases, however, the relationship is less intimate. Symbiosis is classified into: mutualism (once called symbiosis), commensalism, and parasitism. These relationships range from mutually beneficial to harmful, or even fatal, for one of the species.

sympatric Relating to two or more animals whose geographical ranges overlap

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