• Plateresque (architecture)

    Plateresque, (“Silversmith-like”), main architectural style in Spain during the late 15th and the 16th centuries, also used in Spain’s American colonies. Cristóbal de Villalón first used the term in 1539 while comparing the richly ornamented facade of the Cathedral of León to a silversmith’s

  • Platero and I (work by Jiménez)

    Juan Ramón Jiménez: …translation of his prose work Platero y yo (1917; Platero and I), the story of a man and his donkey. He also collaborated with his wife in the translation of the Irish playwright John Millington Synge’s Riders to the Sea (1920). His poetic output during his life was immense. Among…

  • Platero y yo (work by Jiménez)

    Juan Ramón Jiménez: …translation of his prose work Platero y yo (1917; Platero and I), the story of a man and his donkey. He also collaborated with his wife in the translation of the Irish playwright John Millington Synge’s Riders to the Sea (1920). His poetic output during his life was immense. Among…

  • plateway (transportation)

    railroad: Source in inland water transport: …the late Middle Ages, the plateway, suggested a means to make steam-powered land transport practicable. In central Europe most of the common metals were being mined by the 16th and 17th centuries, but, because they occurred in low concentrations, great tonnages of ore had to be mined to produce small…

  • platform (architecture)

    Mesopotamian art and architecture: Architecture: …artificially raised up on a platform level with the tops of the city walls, astride which they often stand. Their gates are flanked by colossal portal sculptures in stone, and their internal chambers are decorated with pictorial reliefs carved on upright stone slabs, or orthostats. In addition to the 9th-century…

  • platform (geology)

    Asia: Tectonic framework: The continental nuclei consist of platforms that stabilized mostly in Precambrian time (between roughly 4 billion and 541 million years ago) and have been covered largely by little-disturbed sedimentary rocks; included in that designation are the Angaran (or East Siberian), Indian, and Arabian platforms. There are also several smaller platforms…

  • platform (vessel)

    undersea exploration: Platforms: Undersea exploration of any kind must be conducted from platforms, in most cases, ships, buoys, aircraft, or satellites. Typical oceanographic vessels capable of carrying out a full complement of underwater exploratory activities range in size from about 50 to 150 metres. They support scientific…

  • platform bower (shelter)

    bowerbird: …a thick pad of plant material, ringed or hung about with objects, made by Archbold’s bowerbird (Archboldia papuensis). The stagemaker, or tooth-billed catbird (Scenopoeetes dentirostris), of forests of northeastern Australia, arranges leaves silvery-side up (withered ones are carried aside) to form a “circus ring.”

  • platform frame (construction)

    construction: Timber frames: These present-day “platform” frames are made of standard-dimension timbers, usually two or four centimeters (0.75 or 1.5 inch) thick, which are joined together by machine-made nails and other metal fasteners using hand tools.

  • platform game, electronic (electronic game genre)

    electronic platform game, electronic game genre characterized by maneuvering a character from platform to platform by jumping, climbing, and swinging in order to reach some final destination. The first genuine platform game was Nintendo Company Ltd.’s Donkey Kong (1981), an arcade game in which

  • platform paddle tennis (sport)

    platform tennis, sport that is a combination of tennis and squash, devised in 1928 by American sports enthusiasts Fessenden Blanchard and James Cogswell at Scarsdale, N.Y. It is played on specially constructed platforms, 60 by 30 feet (18 by 9 m), surrounded by back and side walls of tightly strung

  • platform reef (coral reef)

    platform reef, a coral reef found on continental shelves and characterized by a primarily radial growth pattern. A platform reef may or may not lie behind a barrier reef and may undergo elongation if established on a sandbank. Reefs grow actively outward as well as upward, especially in the stable

  • platform rocker (furniture)

    platform rocker, rocking chair with rockers fixed to move on a stationary base rather than on the floor. Introduced in the United States about 1870, it soon achieved popularity, partly because the movable section of the chair could be kept at a comfortable angle without oscillating. The base of the

  • Platform Scripture (Chinese Buddhism)

    Platform Sutra, important text from the Ch’an (Zen) school of Chinese Buddhism, most likely composed in the 8th century ce. It is attributed to the sixth patriarch of the Ch’an tradition, Hui-neng (638–713), although it is most likely the work of subsequent disciples who sought to legitimate their

  • Platform Scripture of the Sixth Patriarch (Chinese Buddhism)

    Platform Sutra, important text from the Ch’an (Zen) school of Chinese Buddhism, most likely composed in the 8th century ce. It is attributed to the sixth patriarch of the Ch’an tradition, Hui-neng (638–713), although it is most likely the work of subsequent disciples who sought to legitimate their

  • platform stage (theater)

    open stage, theatrical stage without a proscenium, projecting into the audience and surrounded on three sides by the audience. The open stage was used in the corrales of Spain’s Golden Age of theatre (beginning about 1570) and in the traditional Noh theatre of Japan. It was also used in the first

  • Platform Sutra (Chinese Buddhism)

    Platform Sutra, important text from the Ch’an (Zen) school of Chinese Buddhism, most likely composed in the 8th century ce. It is attributed to the sixth patriarch of the Ch’an tradition, Hui-neng (638–713), although it is most likely the work of subsequent disciples who sought to legitimate their

  • platform tennis (sport)

    platform tennis, sport that is a combination of tennis and squash, devised in 1928 by American sports enthusiasts Fessenden Blanchard and James Cogswell at Scarsdale, N.Y. It is played on specially constructed platforms, 60 by 30 feet (18 by 9 m), surrounded by back and side walls of tightly strung

  • platform, wave-cut (coastal feature)

    wave-cut platform, gently sloping rock ledge that extends from the high-tide level at the steep-cliff base to below the low-tide level. It develops as a result of wave abrasion; beaches protect the shore from abrasion and therefore prevent the formation of platforms. A platform is broadened as

  • platform-based development (computer science)

    computer science: Platform-based development: Platform-based development is concerned with the design and development of applications for specific types of computers and operating systems (“platforms”). Platform-based development takes into account system-specific characteristics, such as those found in Web programming, multimedia development, mobile application development, and

  • Platforma Obywatelska (political party, Poland)

    Poland: Poland in the 21st century: …was defeated by the centre-right Civic Platform party, which under the premiership of Donald Tusk formed a coalition government with the PSL.

  • Plath, Sylvia (American author)

    Sylvia Plath was an American poet and novelist whose best-known works, such as the poems “Daddy” and “Lady Lazarus” and the novel The Bell Jar, starkly express a sense of alienation and self-destruction closely tied to her personal experiences and, by extension, the situation of women in

  • Platian Shield (geology)

    continental shield: …are designated the Guiana and Platian shields, respectively.

  • Platichthys flesus (fish)

    flounder: …the family Pleuronectidae are the European flounder (Platichthys flesus), a marine and freshwater food and sport fish of Europe that grows to a length of 50 cm (20 inches) and weight of 2.7 kg (6 pounds); the starry flounder (Platichthys stellatus), a North Pacific species that averages about 9 kg…

  • Platichthys stellatus (fish)

    flounder: 7 kg (6 pounds); the starry flounder (Platichthys stellatus), a North Pacific species that averages about 9 kg (20 pounds) in weight; and the winter flounder (Pseudopleuronectes americanus), an American Atlantic food fish, growing to about 60 cm (23 inches) in length. Flounders in that family typically have the eyes…

  • platina del Pinto (mineralogy)

    platinum group: History: The pebbles became known as platina del Pinto—that is, granules of silvery material from the Pinto River, a tributary of the San Juan River in the Chocó region of Colombia.

  • plating (metallurgy)

    plating, coating a metal or other material such as plastic or china with a hard, nonporous metallic surface to improve durability and beauty. Such surfaces as gold, silver, stainless steel, palladium, copper, and nickel are formed by dipping an object into a solution containing the desired surface

  • Platini, Michel (French football player and administrator)

    Michel Platini is a French professional football (soccer) player and administrator who was named the European Footballer of the Year three times (1983–85) and served as president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA; 2007–16). Platini made his French first-division debut with AS

  • Platini, Michel François (French football player and administrator)

    Michel Platini is a French professional football (soccer) player and administrator who was named the European Footballer of the Year three times (1983–85) and served as president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA; 2007–16). Platini made his French first-division debut with AS

  • platinic chloride (chemical compound)

    hexachloroplatinic acid (H2PtCl6∙6H2O), complex compound formed by dissolving platinum metal in aqua regia (a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids) or in hydrochloric acid that contains chlorine. It is crystallized from the solution in the form of reddish brown deliquescent (moisture-absorbing)

  • platiniridium (alloy)

    iridium: …to 77 percent iridium, in platiniridium up to 77 percent, in aurosmiridium 52 percent, and in native platinum up to 7.5 percent. Iridium generally is produced commercially along with the other platinum metals as a by-product of nickel or copper production.

  • Platinum (album by Lambert)

    Miranda Lambert: …fifth solo album, the Grammy-winning Platinum (2014).

  • platinum (chemical element)

    platinum (Pt), chemical element, the best known and most widely used of the six platinum metals of Groups 8–10, Periods 5 and 6, of the periodic table. A very heavy, precious, silver-white metal, platinum is soft and ductile and has a high melting point and good resistance to corrosion and chemical

  • Platinum Blonde (film by Capra [1931])

    Frank Capra: The early 1930s: …one of the writers of Platinum Blonde (1931). Jean Harlow and Loretta Young starred in this comedy of manners, which owed much to Lewis Milestone’s The Front Page (1931) and foreshadowed the romances between female journalists and regular guys that would be at the centre the later Capra-Riskin efforts Mr.…

  • platinum group (chemical element group)

    platinum group, six metals, in order of increasing atomic weight, ruthenium (Ru), rhodium (Rh), palladium (Pd), osmium (Os), iridium (Ir), and platinum (Pt). The elements all possess a silvery white colour—except osmium, which is bluish white. The chemical behaviour of these metals is paradoxical

  • platinum resistance thermometer (instrument)

    undersea exploration: Water sampling for temperature and salinity: …a tiny thermistor with a platinum-resistance thermometer. Its operations are carried out in such a way as to fully exploit the fast response of the thermistor and the high accuracy of the platinum thermometer. In addition, the system uses a strain gauge as a pressure sensor, the gauge being adjusted…

  • platinum–iridium (alloy)

    platinum–iridium, alloy of platinum containing from 1 to 30 percent iridium, used for jewelry and surgical pins. A readily worked alloy, platinum–iridium is much harder, stiffer, and more resistant to chemicals than pure platinum, which is relatively soft. Platinum–iridium is also very resistant to

  • Plato (Greek philosopher)

    Plato was an ancient Greek philosopher, student of Socrates (c. 470–399 bce), teacher of Aristotle (384–322 bce), and founder of the Academy. He is best known as the author of philosophical works of unparalleled influence and is one of the major figures of Classical antiquity. Building on the

  • PLATO (computer-based education system)

    PLATO, computer-based education system created in 1960 by Donald L. Bitzer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). In addition to being used successfully as a teaching tool, PLATO also spawned one of the first successful online communities. In many ways, PLATO’s development

  • Plato’s problem (linguistics)

    Noam Chomsky: Plato’s problem: A fundamental insight of philosophical rationalism is that human creativity crucially depends on an innate system of concept generation and combination. According to Chomsky, children display “ordinary” creativity—appropriate and innovative use of complexes of concepts—from virtually their first words. With language, they bring…

  • Plato, Dana (American actress)

    Gary Coleman: …the businessman’s daughter, Kimberly (Dana Plato). “Whatchoo talkin’ ’bout, Willis?,” spoken often by Coleman’s character, became a popular catchphrase in the 1970s and ’80s.

  • Platoid languages

    Benue-Congo languages: Platoid: The 50 Platoid languages are spoken in the area of the Jos Plateau southward to the Benue River valley and across the river to the southeast. These languages also are spoken mostly by small groups, though a few groups are larger—e.g., Jju, or Kaje…

  • Platon (Russian Orthodox bishop)

    Russian Orthodox Church: …Tikhon, who then appointed metropolitans Platon and Evlogy as ruling bishops in America and Europe, respectively. Both of these metropolitans continued intermittently to entertain relations with the synod in Karlovci, but neither of them accepted it as a canonical authority.

  • Platonic Academy (Italian scholars)

    Platonic Academy, a group of scholars in mid-15th-century Florence who met under the leadership of the outstanding translator and promulgator of Platonic philosophy Marsilio Ficino (q.v.), to study and discuss philosophy and the classics. The influence of their modernized and Christianized

  • Platonic Academy (ancient academy, Athens, Greece)

    Academy, in ancient Greece, the academy, or college, of philosophy in the northwestern outskirts of Athens where Plato acquired property about 387 bce and used to teach. At the site there had been an olive grove, a park, and a gymnasium sacred to the legendary Attic hero Academus (or Hecademus).

  • Platonic criticism (literature)

    Platonic criticism, literary criticism based on the philosophical writings of Plato, especially his views on art expressed in Phaedrus, Ion, and the Republic. In practice Platonic criticism is part of an extensive approach to literature, involving an examination of the moral, ethical, and

  • platonic love (philosophy)

    platonic love, a phrase used in two senses, with allusion in both cases to Plato’s account of love in his Symposium. The immediate object of the Symposium—which professes to record the discourses made in eulogy of Eros by a group of eminent speakers at a banquet in honour of the tragic poet

  • Platonic solid (mathematics)

    Platonic solid, any of the five geometric solids whose faces are all identical, regular polygons meeting at the same three-dimensional angles. Also known as the five regular polyhedra, they consist of the tetrahedron (or pyramid), cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron. Pythagoras (c.

  • Platonica, Accademia (Italian scholars)

    Platonic Academy, a group of scholars in mid-15th-century Florence who met under the leadership of the outstanding translator and promulgator of Platonic philosophy Marsilio Ficino (q.v.), to study and discuss philosophy and the classics. The influence of their modernized and Christianized

  • Platonism

    Platonism, any philosophy that derives its ultimate inspiration from Plato. Though there was in antiquity a tradition about Plato’s “unwritten doctrines,” Platonism then and later was based primarily on a reading of the dialogues. But these can be read in many different ways, often very

  • Platonov, Andrey (Russian author)

    Russia: The 20th century: …Master and Margarita (1966–67) and Andrey Platonov’s dark pictures of rural and semiurban Russia, The Foundation Pit (1973) and Chevengur (1972).

  • Platonov, Sergey Fyodorovich (Russian historian)

    Sergey Fyodorovich Platonov was a leading Russian historian of the early 20th century. Having graduated from the University of St. Petersburg in 1882, Platonov held various academic posts at that institution and elsewhere. After 1920 he was a member of the U.S.S.R.’s Academy of Sciences. Most of

  • platoon (military unit)

    platoon, principal subdivision of a military company, battery, or troop. Usually commanded by a lieutenant, it consists of from 25 to 50 men organized into two or more sections, or squads, led by noncommissioned officers. In the 17th century the term referred to a small body of musketeers who fired

  • Platoon (film by Stone [1986])

    Platoon, American war film, released in 1986, that was written and directed by Oliver Stone and was regarded by many critics as one of the best of the movies about the Vietnam War. Platoon won the Academy Award for best picture and the Golden Globe Award for best drama. (Read Martin Scorsese’s

  • platoon football (sports)

    American football: Knute Rockne and the influence of coaches: …controversy over one-platoon or two-platoon football (11 men playing both ways, or separate squads for offense and defense) arose in part out of concern that coaches not gain more control over the game. The colleges returned to one-platoon football in 1953, but in 1965 open substitution and two platoons…

  • Platorchestia platensis (crustacean)

    sand flea: The common sand flea (Platorchestia platensis, formerly known as Orchestia agilis), which is found on the coast of Europe and on the eastern Atlantic coasts of the Americas from Greenland to Uruguay, is about 1 cm (0.4 inch) in length and is mostly dark brown or…

  • Platt Amendment (United States [1901])

    Platt Amendment, rider appended to the U.S. Army appropriations bill of March 1901, stipulating the conditions for withdrawal of U.S. troops remaining in Cuba since the Spanish-American War and molding fundamental Cuban-U.S. relations until 1934. Formulated by the secretary of war, Elihu Root, the

  • Platt, Edward (American actor)

    Rebel Without a Cause: …supporting cast included Dennis Hopper, Edward Platt, and Jim Backus, who received praise for his memorable role as Dean’s henpecked father. All three lead actors met untimely deaths. Dean died in a car crash at age 24; Mineo was stabbed to death at 37; and Wood drowned amid mysterious circumstances…

  • Platt, Louise (American actress)

    Stagecoach: …fellow passenger Lucy Mallory (Louise Platt), who is pregnant and hopes to reunite with her husband in Lordsburg, where he serves as an army officer; and Doc Boone (Thomas Mitchell), a charismatic drunkard. The nervous passengers are reassured that they will have a U.S. cavalry escort through Apache territory,…

  • Platt, Martha (American social worker)

    Martha Platt Falconer was an American social worker who helped transform U.S. institutions for delinquent or displaced and homeless young women from fundamentally a system of incarceration to one based on rehabilitation. On the death of her mother in 1877, Martha Platt lived with an older sister in

  • Platt, Oliver (American actor)

    Charlie Sheen: Acting stardom in the 1980s and ’90s: (Athos), Chris O’Donnell (D’Artagnan), Oliver Platt (Porthos), and Tim Curry (Cardinal Richelieu). In 1994 Sheen reprised his role as Vaughn in Major League II.

  • Platt, Orville Hitchcock (United States senator)

    Orville Hitchcock Platt was a U.S. senator from Connecticut (1879–1905) who introduced the Platt Amendment, which became the basis for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Cuba following the Spanish-American War of 1898. Platt began the practice of law in Meriden, Connecticut, in 1850 and was active

  • Platt, Thomas Collier (United States senator)

    Thomas Collier Platt was a U.S. representative and senator from New York, who unwittingly furthered the rise to the U.S. presidency of Theodore Roosevelt (whom he called “a perfect bull in a china shop”). Educated at Owego Academy and at Yale (1849–50), Platt entered banking and lumbering, served

  • Platt, William (British military officer)

    World War II: East Africa: …frontier directly into Ethiopia, General William Platt and the Indian divisions invaded Eritrea on January 19, 1941 (the Italians had already abandoned Kassala); and, almost simultaneously, British troops from Kenya, under General Alan Cunningham, advanced into Italian Somaliland.

  • Plattdeutsch

    German language: …either the High German or Low German dialectal groups. The main difference between High and Low German is in the sound system, especially in the consonants. High German, the language of the southern highlands of Germany, is the official written language.

  • Platte Purchase (United States [1836])

    St. Joseph: The Platte Purchase (1836), adding about 2,000,000 acres (800,000 hectares) of Native American land to the state territory, resulted in an influx of settlers. Robidoux laid out the town in 1843 and named it for his patron saint. During the California Gold Rush (1849), St. Joseph…

  • Platte River (river, Nebraska, United States)

    Platte River, river of Nebraska, U.S., formed at the city of North Platte by the confluence of the North Platte and South Platte rivers. The Platte proper is 310 miles (500 km) long, but measured from its source stream, Grizzly Creek in Colorado (via the North Platte River), the system has a length

  • Platter, Thomas (Swiss author)

    Thomas Platter was a Swiss writer and humanist known for his autobiography. After years of hardship, spent as a goatherd in the Alps and as a scholar’s assistant in Germany, Platter was initiated at Zürich into Huldrych Zwingli’s teachings and the newly discovered world of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew

  • Platters, the (American music group)

    the Platters, American vocal ensemble, one of the foremost singing groups of the early days of rock and roll and also often associated with the doo-wop style. The principal members were Tony Williams (byname of Samuel Anthony Williams; b. April 5, 1928, Elizabeth, New Jersey, U.S.—d. August 14,

  • Plattsburg Idea (United States history)

    Preparedness Movement: …Wood, who backed the “Plattsburg Idea”—a summer training camp for potential officers at Plattsburg, New York, where business and professional men were drilled in military fundamentals. Both Roosevelt and Wood favoured universal conscription, and they publicly criticized Wilson’s opposition to a large standing army and his advocacy of unarmed…

  • Plattsburgh (New York, United States)

    Plattsburgh, city, seat (1788) of Clinton county, northeastern New York, U.S. It lies on the west shore of Lake Champlain at the mouth of the Saranac River, 60 miles (97 km) south of Montreal, Canada. It was founded by Zephaniah Platt in 1784. During the War of 1812, it was the scene of an

  • Plattsburgh, Battle of (War of 1812)

    Battle of Plattsburgh, battle during the War of 1812, fought on September 6–11, 1814, by land and naval forces of Britain and the United States. The battle resulted in an important American victory on Lake Champlain, one that likely saved New York from British invasion by way of the Hudson River

  • Plattsmouth (Nebraska, United States)

    Plattsmouth, city, seat (1855) of Cass county, eastern Nebraska, U.S., near the confluence of the Platte and Missouri rivers, about 20 miles (32 km) south of Omaha. Oto and Omaha Indians were early inhabitants. French explorers visited the area in 1730, and the Lewis and Clark Expedition camped

  • platy (fish)

    platy, (species Xiphophorus maculatus), popular tropical aquarium fish of the live-bearer family, Poeciliidae (order Atheriniformes). The platy is a compact fish, about 5 cm (2 inches) long and extremely variable in colour. It has been bred in many attractive colour varieties, and, like the related

  • platybasia (pathology)

    nervous system disease: Cephalic disorders: Platybasia, an abnormal shallowness of the base of the skull, is a malformation that may be associated with projection of the vertebral column upward. This condition may also occur in association with bone diseases such as osteomalacia and Paget disease of bone in adulthood. In…

  • Platycephalidae (fish)

    flathead, any of the flattened marine fishes of the families Platycephalidae, Bembridae, and Hoplichthyidae (order Scorpaeniformes), found in the Indo-Pacific and in tropical regions of the eastern Atlantic. Flatheads are elongated, large-mouthed fish with tapered bodies, two dorsal fins, and rough

  • Platycephaloidei (fish suborder)

    scorpaeniform: Annotated classification: Suborder Platycephaloidei Moderate-sized with head and anterior part of body strongly flattened. Vertebrae about 27. Some forms have no swim bladder. Family Platycephalidae (flatheads) Head and body flattened anteriorly. Size to 130 cm (52 inches) and 15 kg (33 pounds). Marine; usually buried in soft bottom,…

  • Platycephalus fuscus (fish)

    scorpaeniform: Ecology: …fishes, but others, like the dusky flathead (Platycephalus fuscus), the largest and commercially most valuable of the Australian flatheads, have a varied diet of fishes, mollusks, crustaceans, and marine worms.

  • Platyceras (fossil snail genus)

    Platyceras, genus of extinct gastropods (snails) that occurs as fossils in rocks of Silurian to Permian age (about 444 million to 251 million years ago). Its distinctive shape is easily recognized. The caplike shell is high and broad anteriorly. The posterior portion of the shell, at the apex, is

  • Platycerium (plant, genus Platycerium)

    staghorn fern, (genus Platycerium), member of the genus Platycerium (family Polypodiaceae), which is bizarre in appearance and frequently displayed in conservatories and other collections. Platycerium ( 17 species of Africa, Asia, and South America) is epiphytic—i.e., the plants grow upon other

  • Platycerus (bird)

    rosella, any of several species of popular caged birds, particularly certain Australian species, classified as parakeets. See

  • Platycodon grandiflorus (plant)

    balloon flower, (Platycodon grandiflorus), perennial flowering plant of the bellflower family (Campanulaceae), native to East Asia. The plants are commonly cultivated as a garden ornamental and are sometimes grown as a ground cover. The balloon flower gets its name from its balloonlike flower buds.

  • Platycopida (crustacean)

    crustacean: Annotated classification: Podocopa Order Platycopida Ordovician to present; antennae biramous; 4 pairs of postoral limbs; marine. Order Podocopida Ordovician to present; antennae uniramous; 5 pairs of postoral appendages; marine, freshwater, and terrestrial. Class Malacostraca Cambrian

  • Platycotis (insect)

    treehopper: The oak treehoppers, Platycotis vittata and P. quadrivittata, feed on deciduous and evergreen oaks. Treehoppers can be controlled by applying insecticides before eggs are laid and by cutting down surrounding weeds.

  • Platycrinites (fossil echinoderm genus)

    Platycrinites, genus of extinct crinoids, or sea lilies, especially characteristic as fossils of Early Carboniferous marine deposits (359 million to 318 million years ago). Platycrinites, of moderate size, had a columnar stem with a twisted pattern, an unusual

  • Platygloeales (order of fungi)

    fungus: Annotated classification: Order Platygloeales Parasitic on mosses and other plants; pycnium (fruiting body of rusts) forms masses of hyphae inside mosses; example genera include Platygloea and Eocronartium. Order Pucciniales Parasitic on plants; typically have 5 spore stages and 2 alternate hosts; example genera include Puccinia and Uromyces.

  • platyhelminth (invertebrate)

    flatworm, any of the phylum Platyhelminthes, a group of soft-bodied, usually much flattened invertebrates. A number of flatworm species are free-living, but about 80 percent of all flatworms are parasitic—i.e., living on or in another organism and securing nourishment from it. They are bilaterally

  • Platyhelminthes (invertebrate)

    flatworm, any of the phylum Platyhelminthes, a group of soft-bodied, usually much flattened invertebrates. A number of flatworm species are free-living, but about 80 percent of all flatworms are parasitic—i.e., living on or in another organism and securing nourishment from it. They are bilaterally

  • platykurtic distribution (statistics)

    kurtosis: In contrast, platykurtic distributions have narrow tails and thus have negative kurtosis, whereas mesokurtic distributions (such as the normal distribution) have a kurtosis of zero.

  • Platymeris rhadamanthus (insect)

    assassin bug: Predatory behaviour: The species Platymeris rhadamanthus “spits” saliva in reaction to certain disturbances. Saliva is ejected toward an attacker and can travel as far as 30 cm (12 inches). It contains lytic substances, capable of externally digesting the bug’s victims.

  • Platyn, John (imperial official at Ravenna)

    Saint Sergius I: …already bribed the imperial exarch John Platyn, who first effected Paschal’s nomination against a minority favouring Theodore but who then approved the higher clergy’s candidate, Sergius, from whom he extorted the gold that Paschal originally promised. Sergius reluctantly paid and was consecrated on December 15, 687; Theodore ceded, but Paschal…

  • Platyneuromus (insect genus)

    dobsonfly: Larvae of Platyneuromus dobsonflies, which occur in Mexico and Central America, are found in habitats similar to those of Corydalus. Adult Platyneuromus also are similar in appearance to Corydalus but are distinguished by the presence of postocular flanges (plates behind the eyes). In areas where the two…

  • Platypodium elegans (tree)

    “Flying” Trees: The canopy trees Platypodium elegans and Tachigalia versicolor (see suicide tree) produce single-winged fruits similar to those of maple trees common in temperate zones. In the case of P. elegans, each fruit is attached to a twig by the tip of its wing and has a dry weight…

  • platypus (monotreme)

    platypus, (Ornithorhynchus anatinus), a small amphibious Australian mammal noted for its odd combination of primitive features and special adaptations, especially the flat, almost comical bill that early observers thought was that of a duck sewn onto the body of a mammal. Adding to its distinctive

  • Platyrinchus (bird)

    spadebill, any of six species of New World flycatchers (family Tyrannidae, order Passeriformes) whose triangular bill is very broad and flat. The white-throated, or stub-tailed, spadebill (Platyrinchus mystaceus), scarcely 10 centimetres (4 inches) long, is the most widespread species; it inhabits

  • Platyrinchus mystaceus (bird)

    spadebill: …white-throated, or stub-tailed, spadebill (Platyrinchus mystaceus), scarcely 10 centimetres (4 inches) long, is the most widespread species; it inhabits forest undergrowth from southern Mexico to Argentina in southern South America.

  • platyrrhine (mammal)

    Amazon River: Animal life: …forest are several species of monkeys. Of note are the howler monkeys, which make the selva resound with their morning and evening choruses. The small, agile squirrel monkey, the most ubiquitous of Amazonia’s monkeys, is used in laboratories, as is the larger spider monkey. Among a host of other primate…

  • Platyrrhini (mammal)

    Amazon River: Animal life: …forest are several species of monkeys. Of note are the howler monkeys, which make the selva resound with their morning and evening choruses. The small, agile squirrel monkey, the most ubiquitous of Amazonia’s monkeys, is used in laboratories, as is the larger spider monkey. Among a host of other primate…

  • Platysaurus attenboroughi (reptile)

    10 Organisms Named for David Attenborough: Attenborough’s flat lizard: • What: species of lizard that lives in rocky outcroppings. Flat lizards are the only lizards endemic to Africa and are so named for their flat bodies, which allow them to hide in tight crevasses for protection against the heat and predators.…

  • Platystemon californicus (plant)

    creamcups, (Platystemon californicus), annual plant of the poppy family (Papaveraceae), native to western North America. Creamcups commonly grow with grasses in open areas and flower from March to May. The creamcups plant is a hairy herb that reaches about 30 cm (1 foot) high. It bears 2.5-cm