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ascidian

[uh-sid-ee-uh n]Zoology
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noun
  1. any solitary or colonial tunicate of the class Ascidiacea, exhibiting in the larval stage the vertebrate characteristics of a notocord and hollow nerve cord.
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adjective
  1. belonging or pertaining to the class Ascidiacea.
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Origin of ascidian

1855–60; < New Latin Ascidi(um) a tunicate genus (see ascidium) + -an
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for ascidian

Historical Examples

  • The ascidian has only one eye inside its useless brain, while the tadpole and all other vertebrates have two from the very first.

    The Evolutionist at Large

    Grant Allen

  • So that in this respect the ascidian larva is nearer to the original type than the tadpole or any other existing animal.

  • The ascidian when born is a tiny, free-swimming, tadpole-like creature with a slender finned tail.

  • Chabry had published in 1887 some interesting results on the Ascidian egg, which strongly supported the Roux-Weismann theory.

    Form and Function

    E. S. (Edward Stuart) Russell

  • The beginning of man an ascidian—his ultimate development as an angel, a pear-shaped, transparent bag.

British Dictionary definitions for ascidian

ascidian

noun
  1. any minute marine invertebrate animal of the class Ascidiacea, such as the sea squirt, the adults of which are degenerate and sedentary: subphylum Tunicata (tunicates)
  2. ascidian tadpole the free-swimming larva of an ascidian, having a tadpole-like tail containing the notochord and nerve cord
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adjective
  1. of, relating to, or belonging to the Ascidiacea
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012