User:Ashorocetus/sandbox/Glossary of fossil egg terms

Terminology comes from Carpenter (1999) unless otherwise noted.

A
Anastomotuberculate: A type of ornamentation wherein the egg is covered with wavy, branching, or anastomosing ridges or chains of nodes. Common in elongated eggs. Angusticanaliculate: A type of pore system with straight, narrow pore canals. The pores are small and sparse.

C
Compactituberculate: A course ornamentation formed by node-shaped tops of shell units. Typically found in megaloolithid eggs.

D
Dispersituberculate: Ornamentation with sparsely scattered nodes. Commonly occurs on the ends of elongated eggs, e.g. Elongatoolithidae.

E
Elongation index: The length of an egg divided by its width.

F
Foveocanaliculate: A type of prolatocanaliculate pore system with wide pore openings.

L
Lagenocanaliculate: A type of prolatocanaliculate pore system with narrow pore openings. Linearituberculate: Ornamentation with linear ridges (or occasionally linear rows of nodes) parallel to the egg's long axis.

M
Multicanaliculate: A type of pore canal structure, in which the pores have numerous, tightly packed, and usually branching canals. The pores are large and dense, so eggs of this type would have a high gas exchange and water loss rate. Historically, "multicanaliculate" referred to eggs now classified as oofamily Faveoloolithidae.

O
Obliquicanaliculate: A pore system unique to Preprismatoolithus in which the pore canals cut diagonally through shell units rather than passing between them. Ornamentation: The bumps, nodes, ridges, or other texture on the outer surface of the eggshell.

P
Prolatocanaliculate: A pore system in which pore canals have variable sidth along their length. The pores are large and relatively numerous. This type is further subdivided into lagenocanaliculate, with narrow openings, and foveocanalicalute, with wider openings.

R
Ramotuberculate: Ornamentation by irregular chains of nodes that may meander and merge with each other. Usually found in elongated eggs, on the section between the equator and the poles of the egg. Rimocanaliculate: A pore system with slitlike canals. Often co-occurs with angusticanaliculate and prolatocanaliculate on the shell surface.

S
Sagenotuberculate: A type of ornamentation characterized by a netlike pattern of ridges and nodes, interspersed with pits and grooves.

T
Tubocanaliculate: A pore system with straight pores, similar to angusticanaliculte, but the pore canals are wider and more numerous, with funnel-like openings.