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A hard flap serving as a cover for (a) the gill slits in fishes or (b) the opening of the shell in certain gastropods when the body is retracted
Answer for the clue "A hard flap serving as a cover for (a) the gill slits in fishes or (b) the opening of the shell in certain gastropods when the body is retracted ", 9 letters:
operculum
Word definitions for operculum in dictionaries
Wikipedia
Word definitions in Wikipedia
An operculum (animal) is an anatomical feature, a stiff structure resembling a lid or a small door that opens and closes, and thus controls contact between the outside world and an internal part of an animal . Examples include: An operculum (gastropod) ...
WordNet
Word definitions in WordNet
n. a hard flap serving as a cover for (a) the gill slits in fishes or (b) the opening of the shell in certain gastropods when the body is retracted [also: opercula (pl)]
Wiktionary
Word definitions in Wiktionary
n. A covering flap or lidlike structure in plants and animals, such as a gill cover
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Word definitions in The Collaborative International Dictionary
Operculum \O*per"cu*lum\, n.; pl. L. Opercula , E. Operculums . [L., a cover or lid, fr. operire to cover.] (Bot.) The lid of a pitcherform leaf. The lid of the urnlike capsule of mosses. (Anat.) Any lidlike or operculiform process or part; as, the opercula ...
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Word definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1713, from Latin operculum "cover, lid," from operire "to cover, close" (see weir ), with instrumental suffix *-tlom . Related: Opercular .
Usage examples of operculum.
I lifted the circular operculum from its place and laid it carefully on the bale.
The cerebral hemispheres were asymmetrical, the frontal lobes, corresponding to the psychical performances in the case, being relatively pretty large, while the posterior portion of the third convolution on the left side, the island of Reil, and the operculum were very small, corresponding to the inability to learn to speak.
A distinct operculum is usually detached by the help of the annulus, and its removal may leave the mouth of the capsule widely open.
The capsule does not open by an operculum but by four or six longitudinal slits, which do not reach either the base or apex.
These cleistocarpous forms are now recognized as related to various natural groups, in which the majority of the species possess an operculum.
Bryales into Musci Cleistocarpi and Musci Stegocarpi according to the absence or presence of an operculum is thus clearly artificial.
The Sphagnales also have a dome-shaped spore-sac continued over the columella, and, though their capsule opens by an operculum, they differ widely from other mosses in the development of the sporogonium as well as in the characters of the sexual generation.
A still more highly endowed relation spins a similar fabric, upon which are loosely agglutinated numbers of small dead shells, grit, and even opercula a quarter of an inch in diameter.