CARTA Glossary

Carnivorous lineage that includes domestic dogs, wolves, foxes, jackals, dingoes, and other extant and extinct dog-like mammals.

An acquired or hereditary disease of heart muscle resulting in weakening, enlargement, thickening, or rigidity of the heart.

An organism that derives its energy and nutrient requirements from a diet consisting mainly or exclusively of animal tissue, whether through predation or scavenging.

A young boy who had been neglected and abandoned by alcoholic parents in Chile. CauCau lived in a forest without human companionship starting around 1945 at age 7 or 9, until being “found” in 1947.

The majority of the nervous system that consists of the brain, spinal cord, retina, optic nerves, and olfactory epithelium. The CNS integrates sensory information and coordinates and influences the activity of the body in bilaterally symmetric animals (all multicellular animals except sponges and radially symmetric animals such as jellyfish).

The largest part of the brain that contains the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, basal ganglia, and olfactory bulb.

Proteins located in plasma membranes that form a passageway that can open or close to allow or stop the flow of particular ions across the membrane (see also receptor).

An infection caused by the Chikungunya virus, which is spread between people by Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti mosquitos. Symptoms include fever and joint pain. Chikungunya typically occurs in Africa and Asia, but recent outbreaks have been reported in Europe and the Americas.

One of the two species comprising the genus, Pan, having branched from bonobos ~1 million years ago. Sometimes referred to as “common chimpanzees”. Native to sub-Saharan Africa, chimpanzees are found in and around the Congo Basin (north of the Congo River) and throughout West Africa. Chimpanzees are divided into four subspecies, based on appearance and distribution. Compared to bonobos, chimpanzees are somewhat larger, more aggressive, and exhibit male social dominance.

A complex of DNA and proteins (histone and adaptor proteins) forming chromosomes.

Discrete strands of tightly packaged chromatin.

Receptors expressed on a cell surface that bind ligands on the same cell surface.

A branching diagram used to show hypothetical relations among groups of organisms and their hypothetical most common ancestors. It is not an evolutionary tree as it does not show how ancestors are related to descendants, nor does it show evolutionary distance or time.

The process by which blood changes from liquid to a gel, forming a clot. Also known as coagulation.

Models evolution backward in time to infer historical population size, mutation rate, allele age, and allele frequency change by selection and drift.

A natural alkaloid and insecticide produced by the South American coca plant that also acts as a natural stimulant.

A form of genomic inheritance in which both inherited alleles (one from each parent) are expressed and contribute to the phenotype.

The mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.

As proposed by Tetsuro Matsuzawa, postulates that a trade-off between superior language facility at the expense of memory ability based on social life occurred during human evolution.  In comparison to chimpanzees, who possess superior short-term memory  abilities and no known language, humans de-emphasized short term memory for extraordinary language capacity, which may be one mechanism for increased collaboration and altruism in humans.

A relationship between organisms where one derives food or other benefits from the other without hurting or helping it.

A method of evolutionary analysis that uses comparisons across independently evolved species, as a means for studying historical and physical constraints.

A phenotypic trait with variability influenced by numerous genes (each with small effects).

A disease or physical abnormality present from birth.

The waking state and awareness of existence.

Infectious diseases that can be spread from organism to organism by direct or indirect contact. Contagious disease is a subset of communicable, infectious, and transmissible.

An evolutionary model in which change occurs gradually over time. Compare with Punctuated Equilibrium.

A social system in which parents and other individuals within the group provide care for offspring.

Blockage of blood flow to the heart, caused by atherosclerosis and blood clotting in a coronary artery. The most common kind of heart attack.

An infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and then spread globally, resulting in a pandemic. Common symptoms include fever, cough, fatigue, shortness of breath, loss of appetite, sputum production, and muscle and joint pains, and loss of smell and taste. Severe cases may progress to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), multi-organ failure, septic shock, and blood clots. Spread of the virus occurs between people during close contact, most often via small droplets produced by coughing, sneezing, and talking. Less commonly, people may become infected by touching a contaminated surface and then touching their face.

A class of steroid hormones. E.g., cortisol.

The family of stout-billed passerine birds (an order of birds characterized by an arrangement of toes with three forward and one backward to facilitate perching) including the crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treepies, choughs, and nutcrackers.

How much energy it takes to move from point A to point B.

Locus where a cytosine nucleotide is followed by guanine nucleotide in the linear sequence of bases. Cytosines in CpG dinucleotides can be methylated to form 5-methyl cytosine, a common epigenetic mark.

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats. A method that can mutate a specified locus.

In human culture, the accumulation of cultural modifications over time (“ratchet effect”) resulting from social learning, active teaching, social motivations for conformity, and normative sanctions against non-conformity.

The human lineage lost the function of the CMAH gene over 2 million years ago that caused human cells to both lack Neu5Gc and carry an excess of Neu5Ac.

A broad and loose category of small proteins secreted by certain cells of the immune system and are important in cell signaling and have an effect on other cells.

Resulting cell(s) formed when neural stem cells or progenitor cells undergo cellular division.

Study of population size over time.

A severe form of Dengue Fever, which includes bleeding and blood platelet and blood plasma leakage.

The cause of Dengue Fever. It is a mosquito- borne, single positive-stranded RNA virus of the genus, Flavivirus. Origin: Africa and Asia.

Calcified dental plaque, provides information on diet, disease, health, microbiome and protects the genetic information within the tooth from degradation.

Variants arising since last common ancestor.

A selective disorder characterized by marked impairment in episodic memory despite relatively preserved semantic memory.

Psychosocial milestones or accomplishments expected of people of different ages in a given cultural and historical context; Common developmental tasks include bonding with caregivers, walking, talking, learning to read, getting along with other people, and caring for one’s children.

Organisms with two sets of each chromosome except for XY sex chromosomes in male mammals.

The ability to refer to entities, properties, and events at some spatial and/or temporal remove from the immediate communicative situation (Kluender, 2020).

Northern Chad.  A fossil rich desert that is most famous for the discovery of Sahelenthropous tchadensis (Toumai) in 2001. 

A process by which methyl groups are added to the DNA molecule. Methylation can change the activity of a DNA segment without changing the sequence. When located in a gene promoter, DNA methylation typically acts to repress gene transcription.