A specially modified amino acid involving the addition of a formyl group to the amino acid group of methionine. It is the first amino acid incorporated into a polypeptide chain in prokaryotes and in eukaryotic cellular organelles. A mutational change from a wild-type allele to a mutant allele. Naturally occurring casts are also considered fossils. The outermost protective layer of the skin of leaves or blades of grass, made of cutin, a very resistant material that survives in the archaeological record often in feces.
Cuticular analysis is a useful adjunct to palynology in environmental reconstruction.
The fossil wedges are proof of past cooling of climate and of the depth of the permafrost. A phenomenon that occurs when the isolate effect is exhibited by a small breeding unit that has formed by migration of a small number of individuals from a large population. A shallow depression or pit. A mutational addition or deletion of a base pair in a gene that disrupts the normal reading frame of an mRNA, which is read in groups of three bases. In this plane a line between the top of the external auditory meatus and the lowest point on the orbit is made horizontal.