cephalochordate

Thân thiện

A cephalochordate burrows in the sandy seabed.

Definition

1. Noun:
   • A primitive marine animal resembling a fish: A cephalochordate is a small, translucent, fish-like chordate animal that lives buried in sand in shallow temperate or tropical seas.
   • An animal with a notochord in place of a true backbone: It belongs to the subphylum Cephalochordata, characterized by having a notochord (a flexible rod-like structure) extending the length of the body, which serves as a primitive axial skeleton instead of a vertebral column.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • The lancelet is a well-known example of a cephalochordate.
  • Biologists study the cephalochordate to understand the evolution of vertebrates.

Advanced Usage

• In evolutionary biology: The term is used to describe an organism representing an early stage in chordate evolution.
  • The cephalochordate body plan provides key insights into the ancestry of all vertebrates.

Variants and Related Words

• Cephalochordata (n): The subphylum name to which these animals belong.
  • The subphylum Cephalochordata contains only a few dozen species.

Synonyms

• Lancelet: The common name for animals in this group.
• Amphioxus: An older, synonymous genus name often used to refer to these animals.

Different Meanings

This word has a highly specific, scientific meaning and is not commonly used in other contexts. It refers exclusively to the biological group described.

Học thuật

Noun

1. fish-like animals having a notochord rather than a true spinal column