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F1 generation: The
first filial generation produced by crossing two parental strains.
F2 generation: The
second filial generation produced by selfing the F1.
F-pili (sex pili):
Hairlike cell surface components produced by cells containing the
F factor, which allow the physical union of F+ and F- cells or Hfr
and F- cells to take place.
facet: (1) Small articulation
face, a smooth limited area on a bone. (2) A locale of flake removal
from a core, also called a flake scar.
facial dishing: A condition
in some hominid faces where the nasal bones and the borders of the
piriform aperture are recessed relative to the cheeks, making the
midface area concave.
facies: Varieties.
factor analysis: A
multivariate statistical technique which assesses the degree of
variation between artifact types, and is based on a matrix of correlation
coefficients which measure the relative association between any
two variables.
facultative heterochromatin:
Chromatin that may become condensed throughout the cell cycle and
may contain genes that are inactivated when the chromatin becomes
condensed.
fall-off analysis:
The study of regularities in the way in which quantities of traded
items found in the archaeological record decline as the distance
from the source increases. This may be plotted as a fall-off curve,
with the quantities of material (Y-axis) plotted against the distance
from the source (X-axis).
familial trait: A trait
shared by members of a family.
family: The major group
within an order, a monophyletic group of genera separated from similar
groups by distance of common ancestry.
fauna: Animals.
faunal assemblage:
A group of living or fossil animals found in a particular geographic
or geological context, thought to sample part of a naturally occurring
community.
faunal correlation:
Determination of the relative ages of different geological strata
by comparing the fossils within the strata and assigning similar
ages to strata with similar fossils; a method of relative dating.
faunal dating: A method
of relative dating based on observing the evolutionary changes in
particular species of mammals, so as to form a rough chronological
sequence.
faunivore: An animal
that primarily eats other animals (includes insectivores and carnivores).
feathered termination:
The distal end of a flake with a very sharp edge.
feature: A non-portable
artifact; e.g. hearths, architectural elements, or soil stains.
fecundity: Number of
offspring a female can or does give birth to over her lifetime.
femur (femora): Long
bone of the thigh or upper leg.
fertility: Number of
offspring produced over a given interval or lifetime.
fetus: Human organism
from eight weeks of development until birth.
fibula: One of two
long bones of the lower leg; this is the more slender, lateral one.
fictive kinship: A
relationship, such as godparenthood, modelled on relations of kinship,
but created by customary convention ratehr than the circumstances
of birth.
fine-structure mapping:
A high-resolution mapping of allelic sites within a gene.
first filial generation:
See F1 generation.
first law: See principle
of segregation.
fission-track dating:
A dating method based on the operation of a radioactive clock, the
spontaneous fission of an isotope of uranium present in a wide range
of rocks and minerals. As with potassium-argon dating, with whose
time range it overlaps, the method gives useful dates from rocks
adjacent to archaeological material.
fissures: Radii usually
originating at the margins of detached pieces on the ventral surface
and directed toward the point of applied force.
fitness: A measure
of fertility and survivorship reflecting genetic variation. See
also Darwinian fitness.
flake (flake tools):
An unusually sharp-edged stone fragmented, struck, or pressured
off of a core (a larger rock or nodule). See detached piece.
flake tool: A flake
that has been subsequently modified by intentional retouch and/or
by wear resulting from use.
flexion: Bending, a
movement in which the angle of a limb joint decreases; the opposite
of extension.
flexor: A muscle whose
action decreases the angle between the bones in a joint.
flint: A form of chert
usually found in accumulations of chalk.
flintknapper: One who
forms stone implements by controlling the fracture of the objective
piece.
flora: Plants.
flotation: A method
of screening (sleving) excavated matrix in water so as to separate
and recover small ecofacts and artifacts.
fluvial: Pertaining
to streams or rivers.
folivore (folivorous,
folivory): Leaf-eating; folivores are animals whose primary source
of food is foliage.
fontanelle: A region
between skull bones that is unossified at birth.
forage: Gather, collect,
hunt, or scavenge foods.
foraging strategy:
Behaviors that lead to the acquisition of food.
foramen (foramina):
A hole or tube-like passageway into or through a bone.
foramen magnum: The
large opening in the occipital bone on the base of the skull through
which the spinal cord passes to join the base of the brain.
foramen ovale: A passageway
with an oval opening, through the sphenoid bone on the base of the
skull, that transmits meningeal arteries and mandibular nerves.
force: The quantity
of energy or power exerted by a moving body.
forebrain: The most
anterior part of the brain.
formal tools: Stone
tools made as a result of extra effort in their production. These
tools are in contrast to expediently made tools with little or no
effort expended in their production.
formation: A defined
unit of rock within a stratigraphic section at the given locality.
formation processes:
Those processes affecting the way in which archaeological materials
came to be buried, and their subsequent history afterwards. Cultural
formation processes include the deliberate or accidental activities
of humans; natural formation processes refer to natural or environmental
events which govern the burial and survival of the archaeological
record.
formylmethionine (fMet):
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.
forward mutation: A
mutational change from a wild-type allele to a mutant allele.
fossa (pl. fossae):
Literally a "ditch," a shallow depression, concavity,
or trough.
fossil: Preserved remains
of once-living plants or animals in which the replacement of organic
or inorganic materials by soil minerals has begun. Naturally occurring
casts are also considered fossils.
fossil cuticles: 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.
fossil ice wedges:
Soil features caused when the ground freezes and contracts, opening
up fissures in the permafrost that fill with ice wedges. The fossil
wedges are proof of past cooling of climate and of the depth of
the permafrost.
founder effect: 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.
fovea: A shallow depression
or pit.
frameshift mutation:
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.
Frankfurt plane: A
widely agreed upon plane for orienting crania to allow valid comparisons,
and to approximate the position of the head during life. In this
plane a line between the top of the external auditory meatus and
the lowest point on the orbit is made horizontal.
frequency distribution:
A means of summarizing the phenotypes of a continuous trait whereby
the population is described in terms of the proportion of individuals
that have each phenotype.
frequency seriation:
A relative dating method which relies principally on measuring changes
in the proportional abundance, or frequency, observed among finds
(e.g. counts of tool types, or of ceramic fabrics).
frontal bone: The cranial
bone forming the forehead and the top of the orbits and nose.
frontal boss (metopic
eminence): A bulge or eminence on the frontal, at the middle of
the squama. It may be centrally located, or exist as paired frontal
tubers that mark the location of the original ossification centers.
frontal breadth: The
maximum transverse breadth of the frontal, taken on the coronal
suture.
frontal keel or torus:
A thickening of bone passing sagittally down the frontal squama
from its top (posterior), for part, most, or all of the squama's
length.
frontal sinus: An open
space found in the frontal bone where the squama meets the top of
the orbits.
frontal trigone: A
concave smooth triangular area on the frontal bone just behind the
orbits. Its base is formed by the supraorbital torus and its apex
by converging temporal lines. To be distinguished from lateral frontal
trigone.
frontoethmoidal sinus:
See ethmoidal sinus.
frontofacial: Pertaining
to the frontal bone and the facial bones.
frugivore: An animal
that feeds primarily on fruit.
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