Definition: The marine benthic biome (benthic meaning 'bottom') encompasses the seafloor and includes such areas as shores, littoral or intertidal areas, marine coral reefs, and the deep seabed.
Definition: muscular waves propelling an animal over a mucus layer overlaying the substrate; alternating regions of muscular contraction and expansion create traveling waves that shear the mucus, resulting in translation of the animal.
Definition: Capable of creating a new organism by combining the genetic material of two gametes, which may come from two parent organisms or from a single organism, in the case of self-fertilizing hermaphrodites.
Definition: Pointed, typically elongate appendages on the shell or carapace surface, less than the thickness of the shell/carapace and covering a small area of it.
Definition: Repeated, thickened, raised structures on the shell or carapace surface, less than the thickness of the shell/carapace and covering a small area of it. Thickenings can be either radial, comarginal, axial or spiral.
