Descriptionary

furball hair swallowed by a cat and forming a mass or "ball" in the stomach.

ghost markings faint markings on solid-colored cats, revealing a slight trait of another breed.

gloves white patches on the feet, also known as mittens.

haw the third eyelid, or nictitating membrane.

heat the sexually receptive period of a female.

laces white markings on the back of the rear legs of some cats.

lilac coloring of pale pinkish gray, also known as lavender.

litter a group of newborn kittens.

locket a white or other-colored patch under the neck.

lordosis the crouched position of a sexually recep­tive female inviting entry by the male.

Manx breed of cat without a tail, thought to have originated in the Orient.

milk-treading the "kneading" motion of a kitten's paws in an attempt to stimulate the flow of its moth­er's milk, the same behavior often seen in adult cats kneading the bellies of their human owners.

moggie a mongrel cat.

muzzle the jaws and nose of a cat.

pads the soles of the paws.

Persian breed originating from Asia, known for its flattened or pushed-in face and thick, luxuriant fur.

pheromones chemical substance released in urine and from certain areas of the skin to mark territories or attract the opposite sex.

piebald having black-and-white coloring.

pricked having ears that point high and erect.

purebred a cat descended from a long line of its own kind.

queen female cat used for breeding.

rangy long-limbed and long-bodied.

Rex breed of cat known for its curly hair and higher body temperature than other cats.

sheath the protective covering over retracted claws.

Siamese angular, elongated breed known for its noisy personality.

sire father.

spaying the neutering of a female cat. spraying the male's act of marking with urine. tabby a striped cat.

tapetum the light-reflecting layer at the back of a cat's eyes, aiding nocturnal vision and causing the "glowing" effect at night.

tom a male cat.

Tonkinese a crossbreed of the Burmese and Sia­mese.

vibrissae the highly sensitive whiskers and hairs found on the cheeks, on the chin, over the eyes, and at the back of the front legs, thought capable of detect­ing subtle air currents and the movement of prey in the dark.

whip long, thin, tapering tail, typically found on a Siamese.

DINOSAuRS

acrocanthosaurus in the Cretaceous period, a very large meat eater with spikes down its back, which may have been part of a sail.

allosaur a large bipedal meat eater with a long, nar­row, and often crested head and three-fingered hands that lived in the Jurassic period.

Alvarez extinction theory a proposal by the physicist Luis Alvarez and his son, the geologist Walter Alvarez, that an asteroid striking Earth 65 million years ago caused massive fires, dust clouds, geological upheavals, atmospheric disturbances, and tsunamis, all of which contributed to the death of vegetation, which in turn caused the starvation and death of the dinosaurs. See Chicxulub, multiple impact theory, Shiva.

ankylosaur a short-legged plant eater characterized by its bony armor and clublike tail. It first appeared in the early Jurassic and survived to the end of the Cretaceous.

apatosaurus formerly known as a brontosaurus, a sauropod that grew to be 70 to 90 feet (21 to 27 m) long during the Jurassic period.

archaeopteryx a Jurassic bird with teeth, feathers, clawed wings and a long, bony tail.

archosaur "ruling lizard," one of a group of com­mon land reptiles from which dinosaurs evolved, sometime during the Triassic period.

argentinosaurus a massive sauropod, one of the largest dinosaurs, measuring 130 to 140 feet (40-43 m) and characterized by a very long tail and equally long neck. It lived in what is now South America dur­ing the Cretaceous period.

articulated skeleton a skeleton that is found with many of its bones still attached.

baryonyx a fish-eating theropod with crocodile-like jaws that lived during the Cretaceous period.

bipedal walking on two legs instead of four, as a predatory dinosaur.

bone bed a large mass of dinosaur bones in one location.

boneheaded dinosaur another name for pachy- cephalosaurid.

brachiosaurus a giant, long-necked sauropod from the Jurassic period.

browser any herbivore that ate portions of trees, shrubs, and other tall plants.

carnivore any meat-eating dinosaur.

carnotaurus a 25-foot (7.5-m) long, meat-eating theropod with horns on its head that lived during the Cretaceous.

caudipteryx zoui a 3-foot-tall (1-m) theropod adorned with insulating (but not flightworthy) feath­ers that lived from the Jurassic to the Cretaceous.