Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of numerous radially symmetrical marine invertebrates of the phylum Echinodermata, which includes the starfishes, sea urchins, and sea cucumbers, having an internal calcareous skeleton and often covered with spines.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Having a prickly covering; echinodermatous.
- noun Any one of the Echinodermata.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) One of the Echinodermata.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any member of the
Echinodermata , a group ofradially symmetric , spiny-skinnedmarine animals . Examples of echinoderms includeseastars ,sea urchins ,sea cucumbers ,crinoids , andsand dollars .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun marine invertebrates with tube feet and five-part radially symmetrical bodies
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The echinoderm was the first to latch on, gradually growing as it sat on the shell, but sometime later a bryozoan larvae also took up residence there.
ScienceBlogs Channel : Life Science Brian Switek none@example.com 2010
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Agence France-Presse/Getty Images The Great Barrier Reef provides a home for 5,000 to 8,000 species of mollusk and 800 species of echinoderm a phylum that includes starfish and sea urchins.
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The variety of aquatic wildlife reads like an open casting call for Finding Nemo: Over 1,500 species of fish, 5,000-8,000 species of mollusks, 30 species of whales and dolphins, 600 species of echinoderm such as starfish, 17 varieties of sea snakes, and 6 species of marine turtles which are listed as threatened.
Yvonne Yorke: The Great Barrier Reef: From Above and Below 2010
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They didn't just publish one mega-paper, but they had a whole section on Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, with a genomics mega-paper and articles on ecology and paleogenomics and the immune system and the transcriptome, and even a big poster of highlights of sea urchin research but strangely, very little on echinoderm development.
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They didn't just publish one mega-paper, but they had a whole section on Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, with a genomics mega-paper and articles on ecology and paleogenomics and the immune system and the transcriptome, and even a big poster of highlights of sea urchin research but strangely, very little on echinoderm development.
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Here we are with an echinoderm, a mollusc, and a chordate.
Steve Steve and the Pirates and Philosophers of the Prairie - The Panda's Thumb 2005
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When the occasional mollusk or echinoderm proves too tough or too large to swallow whole, there are always hands.
Starfish 1999
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I cannot believe that the Isthmus of Panama has been open since the commencement of the glacial period; for, notwithstanding the fishes, so few shells, crustaceans, and, according to Agassiz, not one echinoderm is common to the sides.
Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, Vol. 1 James Marchant
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"It's an echinoderm," he said, "generally with five arms, that lives only in the sea, has a simple stomach, and feeds on the minute organisms in the water."
The Boy With the U. S. Fisheries Francis Rolt-Wheeler 1918
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I cannot believe that the Isthmus of Panama has been open since the commencement of the glacial period; for, notwithstanding the fishes, so few shells, crustaceans, and, according to Agassiz, not one echinoderm is common to the sides.
Alfred Russel Wallace Letters and Reminiscences Marchant, James 1916
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