Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A porifer; a sponge.
  • Same as poriferous.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) One of the Polifera.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun biology Any sponge of the phylum Porifera.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun primitive multicellular marine animal whose porous body is supported by a fibrous skeletal framework; usually occurs in sessile colonies

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From New Latin Porifera, phylum name : New Latin porus, pore (from Latin, passage; see pore) + Latin -fera, neuter pl. of -fer, -fer.]

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Examples

  • "Because all three main clades of bilaterian animals express a let-7 RNA that is temporally regulated, but cnidarian, poriferan and all non-animal species that we analysed do not express a detectable let-7 RNA, we propose that the gene evolved after the divergence of diploblastic and bilaterian animals"

    Teach the Controversy James F. McGrath 2008

  • Namapoikia rietoogensis gen. et sp. nov. is up to 1 meter in diameter and bears a complex and robust biomineralized skeleton; it probably represents a cnidarian or poriferan.

    The Cambrian as an evolutionary exemplar - The Panda's Thumb 2005

  • Your card credit report zukerman isaac with a gravidity milanese in the oscillator uncounted to the treacly conservation limbed to the poriferan.

    Rational Review 2009

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