Zoology glossary ~ H

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Habitat Compression
Restriction of habitat distribution in response to increase in number of competing species.

Habitat Expansion
Increase in average breadth of habitat distribution of species in depauperate biotas, especially on islands, compared with species in more diverse biotas.

Habitat Patch
An area of distinct habitat type.

Habitat Selection
Preference for certain habitats.

Habitat
Place where an animal or plant normally lives, often characterized by a dominant plant form or physical characteristic (that is, the stream habitat, the forest habitat).

Hacking
"A conservation and rehabilitation practice in which birds released into the wild are prvisioned with food while they gradually become independent." (

Hadean
Hadean

Hallux
"Hind toe."

Hatchling
Animal that has just emerged from an egg.

Heat Sensitive Pit
Organ that helps certain snakes locate their warm-blooded prey. In boas and pythons, these border the mouth (labial pits); in pitvipers, they are between the nostri, the eye, and the moutn (loreal pits).

Herbaceous
Having a stem that remains soft and succulent; not woody.

Herbivore
An organism that consumes living plants or their parts.

Hermaphroditic
A type of animal in which each individual possesses both male and female reproductive organs.

Heterodactyly
"Arrangement of the toes in which the inner front toe is turned backward such that two toes point forward and two backward."

Heterogeneity

The variety of qualities found in an environment (habitat patches) or a population (genotypic variation).

Heterotroph
An organism that utilizes organic materials as a source of energy and nutrients.

Hibernation
State of winter dormancy associated with lowered body temperature and metabolism.

Histology
The structure and arrangement of the tissues of organisms; the study of these.

Holarctic
"Relating to the boigeographic region that includes the northern parts of the Old and New Worlds, and that comprises the Nearctic and Palearctic regions."

Holotype
A single individual organism that is selected to represent the standard for a particular taxon and which serves as the standard for the original name and description of the species.

Home Range
"The area that an animal uses in the course of its daily activities. Not necessarily defended."

Homeostasis
The process by which an organism maintains constant internal conditions in the face of a varying external environment.

Homeothermy
Ability to maintain constant body temperature in the face of fluctuating environmental temperature; warm-blooded.

Homology
A similarity in traits that reflects descent from a common ancestor and which by inference was also present in that common ancestor. A shared character that is due to common hereditary.

Host
"Bird whose nest receives eggs laid by brood parasites. The hosts then provide parental care to the unrelated young that hatch from the parasitic egg, often to the detriment of their own young."

Humus
Fine particles of organic detritis in soil.

Hyoid Apparatus
"A collective term for the bones of the tongue and associated connective tissues, found in the upper throat."

Hypostracum
The innermost layer of a snail's shell, closest to the snail's body.