Fungi have been ‘zombifying’ bugs for 99 million years

3-D: Short for three-dimensional. This time period is an adjective for one thing that has options that may be described in three dimensions — peak, width and size.  

amber: Fossilized tree resin (not sap). Researchers assume most of this gemstone possible comes from conifers, or evergreen timber that bear cones. 

ancestor: A predecessor. It may very well be a household forebear, akin to a mother or father, grandparent or great-great-great grandparent. Or it may very well be a species, genus, household or different order of organisms from which some later one advanced. For occasion, historic dinosaurs are the ancestors of as we speak’s birds. (antonym: descendant) 

conduct: The means one thing, typically an individual or different organism, acts in direction of others, or conducts itself. 

caterpillar: The larval stage of moths and butterflies. Somewhat wormy-shaped crawlers, caterpillars are likely to eat leaves and different plant bits. Some will, nonetheless, dine on different bugs. 

fossil: Any preserved stays or traces of historic life. There are many several types of fossils: The bones and different physique components of dinosaurs are referred to as “body fossils.” Things like footprints are referred to as “trace fossils.” Even specimens of dinosaur poop are fossils. The strategy of forming fossils is named fossilization. 

fungus: (plural: fungi) One of a bunch of single- or multiple-celled organisms that reproduce through spores and feed on residing or decaying natural matter. Examples embrace mould, yeasts and mushrooms. 

gland: A cell, a bunch of cells or an organ that produces and discharges a substance (or “secretion”) to be used elsewhere within the physique or in a physique cavity, or for elimination from the physique. 

infect: To unfold a illness from one organism to a different. This often entails introducing some type of disease-causing germ to a person. 

insect: A sort of arthropod that as an grownup could have six segmented legs and three physique components: a head, thorax and stomach. There are a whole bunch of 1000’s of bugs, which embrace bees, beetles, flies and moths. 

perception: The capability to achieve an correct and deep understanding of a scenario simply by fascinated about it, as a substitute of understanding an answer by way of experimentation. 

paleontologist: A scientist who focuses on learning fossils, the stays of historic organisms. 

pupa: (plural: pupae) The life stage in bugs following the larval (caterpillar) stage and previous maturity. 

spore: (in fungi) The species’ single-celled reproductive stage — functioning very similar to a seed — that’s launched and unfold by wind or water. Most are protected in opposition to drying and warmth, to allow them to stay viable for lengthy durations, till circumstances are proper for his or her development.