Definition: Colonial organisms are clonal colonies composed of many physically connected, interdependent individuals. The subunits of colonial organisms can be unicellular, as in the alga Volvox (a coenobium), or multicellular, as in the phylum Bryozoa. The former type may have been the first step toward multicellular organisms
Definition: Marine sediment that accumulates within shallow regions of the oceanic basin close to continents, such as the continental shelf, or continental slope
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: Capable of the biological process in which new individuals are produced by either a single cell or a group of cells, in the absence of any sexual process.
