ctenophore

American  

[ten-uh-fawr, -fohr, tee-nuh-] / ˈtɛn əˌfɔr, -ˌfoʊr, ˈti nə- /

noun

1. any gelatinous marine invertebrate of the phylum Ctenophora; a comb jelly.

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ctenophore British  

/ ˈtiːnə-, ˈtɛnəˌfɔː, tɪˈnɒfərən /

noun

1. Also called: comb jelly.  any marine invertebrate of the phylum Ctenophora, including the sea gooseberry and Venus's-girdle, whose body bears eight rows of fused cilia, for locomotion

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ctenophore Scientific  

/ tĕn′ə-fôr′ /

1. Any of various, mostly small marine invertebrates of the phylum Ctenophora, having transparent, gelatinous bodies bearing eight rows of comblike cilia. Ctenophores have a branched digestive tract that also has circulatory function. Most ctenophores feed on plankton and are bioluminescent, producing brilliant displays of blue or green light at night. Ctenophores are related to cnidarians but are more highly evolved because their bodies have a true mesoderm.

2. Also called comb jelly

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Other Word Forms

• ctenophoran adjective

Etymology

Origin of ctenophore

From the New Latin word ctenophorus, dating back to 1880–85. See cteno-, -phore

Example Sentences

But back in 2008, based on early information from the first sponge and ctenophore genomes, Dunn and his colleagues had proposed that comb jellies branched before sponges did.

From Scientific American • May 17, 2023

We next investigated the identity of the ctenophore transmitters.

From Nature • May 20, 2014

Bootstrap support values are listed at each node. d, Analysis with improved ctenophore taxon sampling based on 114 genes.

From Nature • May 20, 2014

Ctenophorin is uniquely expressed in polarized cells around the mouth of Pleurobrachia and we found its homologues in all ctenophore species we sequenced.

From Nature • May 20, 2014

Driesch and Morgan by removing part of the cytoplasm from a fertilized egg of the ctenophore, Beroe, produced imperfect larvae showing certain defects which represent the parts removed.

From Essays In Pastoral Medicine by ?Malley, Austin