amphisbaenian: A family of burrowing reptiles with generally legless, snake-like bodies. They spend most of their time underground. Their diet consists of other animals, from insects and worms to small rodents.

Caribbean: The name of a sea that runs from the Atlantic Ocean in the East to Mexico and Central American nations in the West, and from the southern coasts of Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico down to the northern coasts of Venezuela and Brazil. The term is also used to refer to the culture of nations that border on or are islands in the sea.

earthworm: A type of worm that lives in the soil. As it moves through soil, an earthworm creates burrows. These allow air and water to move more readily through the soil. The worms feed on decaying organic matter, which helps improve soil fertility.

environment: The sum of all of the things that exist around some organism or the process and the condition those things create. Environment may refer to the weather and ecosystem in which some animal lives, or, perhaps, the temperature and humidity (or even the placement of things in the vicinity of an item of interest).

insect: A type of arthropod that as an adult will have six segmented legs and three body parts: a head, thorax and abdomen. There are hundreds of thousands of insects, which include bees, beetles, flies and moths.

limb: (in physiology) An arm or leg.

lizard: A type of reptile that typically walks on four legs, has a scaly body and a long tapering tail. Unlike most reptiles, lizards also typically have movable eyelids. Examples of lizards include the tuatara, chameleons, Komodo dragon, and Gila monster.

remnant: Something that is leftover — from another piece of something, from another time or even some features from an earlier species.

reptile: Vertebrate animals belonging to a group known as Reptilia. Most reptiles have skin that is covered with scales or horny plates. Snakes, turtles, lizards and alligators are all reptiles. Once considered their own separate group, birds now belong to this order. With the exception of modern birds, most modern reptiles are cold-blooded (or ectothermic).

rodent: A mammal of the order Rodentia, a group that includes mice, rats, squirrels, guinea pigs, hamsters and porcupines.

skull: The skeleton of a person’s or animal’s head.

species: A group of similar organisms capable of producing offspring that can survive and reproduce.

tool: An object that a person or other animal makes or obtains and then uses to carry out some purpose such as reaching food, defending itself or grooming.

unique: Something that is unlike anything else; the only one of its kind.

waste: Any materials that are left over from biological or other systems that have no value, so they can be disposed of as trash or recycled for some new use.

Fechi Inyama is the 2026 AAAS Mass Media Fellow with Science News. She is pursuing a Ph.D. in microbiology at MIT, where she is studying the evolution of microbial metabolisms throughout Earth history.