Aristotle's lantern

American  

noun

Zoology.

1. a complex arrangement of muscles and calcareous teeth and plates forming an eversible organ in most echinoids, functioning in mastication.

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Etymology

Origin of Aristotle's lantern

So called from a reference by Aristotle to a sea urchin resembling in shape certain lanterns

Example Sentences

Diagram of one fifth of Aristotle's lantern of Dendraster showing three loops of the circumoral nerve ring, and parts of three radial nerves, the central one partly hidden at its origin by the lantern.

From Journal of Entomology and Zoology Volume Eleven, Number Two, June 1919 by Various

Clumsy and ill-shaped as it appears to be in other respects, it has jaws of wonderful design, and known to the ancients as "Aristotle's lantern."

From Confessions of a Beachcomber by Banfield, E. J. (Edmund James)

The whole mouth is a conical box, called by naturalists "Aristotle's lantern."

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 02, No. 11, September, 1858 by Various