rotifer

American  

[roh-tuh-fer] / ˈroʊ tə fər /

noun

1. any microscopic animal of the phylum (or class) Rotifera, found in fresh and salt waters, having one or more rings of cilia on the anterior end.

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rotifer British  

/ rəʊˈtɪfərəl, ˈrəʊtɪfə /

noun

1. Also called: wheel animalcule.  any minute aquatic multicellular invertebrate of the phylum Rotifera , having a ciliated wheel-like organ used in feeding and locomotion: common constituents of freshwater plankton

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rotifer Scientific  

/ rō′tə-fər /

1. Any of various tiny, multicellular aquatic animals of the phylum Rotifera, having a wheel-like ring of cilia at their front ends. The cilia trap small organisms for food. Rotifers are grouped by some scientists together with nematodes and some other invertebrates as aschelminths.

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Other Word Forms

• rotiferal adjective
• rotiferous adjective

Etymology

Origin of rotifer

From New Latin, dating back to 1785–95; see origin at Rotifera

Example Sentences

Each rotifer can create between 348,000 - 366,000 per day, leading to uncountable swarms of nanoparticles in our environment.

From Science Daily • Nov. 9, 2023

But even that near-suspension of animation would have nothing on a rotifer: one of these microscopic animals, pulled out of Siberian permafrost, spent the past 25,000 years in a frozen nap before being reanimated.

From Scientific American • Dec. 27, 2021

At least a few of those genes were still functional, producing enzymes or other products useful to the rotifer.

From New York Times • Aug. 13, 2018

The winning rotifer is found in few places in the world, some of them in Moreno’s favorite lake in Panama, Lake Miraflores near Gamboa along the Panama Canal.

From Slate • Oct. 31, 2014

Through this opening the water passes, the rotifer gathers his food from the current, and the food passes into the mastax, where it is ground by the masticating apparatus, which is easily seen in motion.

From Through a Microscope Something of the Science Together with many Curious Observations Indoor and Out and Directions for a Home-made Microscope. by Sargent, Frederick Leroy