sea squirt

American  

noun

1. any tunicate, especially a sessile ascidian, so called from its habit of contracting its body and ejecting streams of water when disturbed.

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sea squirt British  

noun

1. any minute primitive marine animal of the class Ascidiacea, most of which are sedentary, having a saclike body with openings through which water enters and leaves See also ascidian

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sea squirt Scientific  

1. Any of various tunicates of the class Ascidiacea, having a transparent sac-shaped body with two siphons. One of the siphons is used to draw water (carrying oxygen and food particles) into the body, while the other expels it. Sea squirts are free-swimming as larvae but sessile as adults. Like other tunicates, sea squirts are chordates, but they have a notochord only in the larval stage.

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Etymology

Origin of sea squirt

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

Collecting DNA traces from water samples, they show some invasive species are thriving, including a sea squirt that is believed to have originated in Japan and which grows like a carpet over the sea floor.

From BBC

While the effects were not as widespread as those of new PVC pellets, high concentrations were found to affect the development of molluscs, sea urchins, sea stars and sea squirts.

From Science Daily

Especially at the larval stages, sea squirts are surprisingly similar to us.

From Science Daily

She also saw another rare visitor, ethereal relatives of sea squirts known as salps that live in the open oceans forming long chains of tiny animals.

From BBC

They found that the ancestors of one group of palaemonid shrimp had all once lived inside ascidians, a group of tubular filter-feeding organisms that includes tunicates and sea squirts.

From Science Magazine