ostracod
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of ostracod
1860–65; < New Latin Ostracoda name of the subclass < Greek ostrakṓdēs, equivalent to óstrak ( on ) shell, tile ( see ostracize) + -ōdēs -ode 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
That is 273 million years earlier than the glowing ostracod crustaceans that previously held the title of earliest evolution of bioluminescence in animals.
From Science Daily • Apr. 23, 2024
Thus, when ostracod bioluminescence arose 197 million years ago, it wasn’t newly invented, but rather a novel application for an existing gene network.
From Science Magazine • Aug. 24, 2022
Moreover, those tiny differences in the ostracod luciferase “correlate with different types of signals,” as this enzyme’s activity can dictate the brightness, duration, and other features of each flash.
From Science Magazine • Aug. 24, 2022
Seventy million years ago, in a warm shallow sea, swam an ostracod — a tiny bean-shaped creature, no bigger than a grain of sand.
From Salon • Jun. 8, 2018
The team of researchers set about studying 93 species of extinct ostracod, featured in a recent study published in Nature.
From Salon • Jun. 8, 2018
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
