Crossword clues for lancelet
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Amphioxus \Am`phi*ox"us\, n. [NL., fr. Gr. ? + ? sharp.] (Zo["o]l.) A fishlike creature ( Amphioxus lanceolatus), two or three inches long, found in temperature seas; -- also called the lancelet. Its body is pointed at both ends. It is the lowest and most generalized of the vertebrates, having neither brain, skull, vertebr[ae], nor red blood. It forms the type of the group Acrania, Leptocardia, etc.
Wiktionary
n. any of a group of primitive marine animals, of subphylum ''Cephalochordata'', having a notochord instead of a backbone
WordNet
n. small translucent lancet-shaped burrowing marine animal; primitive forerunner of the vertebrates [syn: amphioxus]
Wikipedia
The lancelets (from "lancet") — also known as amphioxi (singular, amphioxus) — comprise some 32 species of fish-like marine chordates in the order Amphioxiformes, with a global distribution in shallow temperate (as far north as Scotland) and tropical seas, usually found half-buried in sand. They are the modern representatives of the subphylum Cephalochordata, formerly thought to be the sister group of the craniates. In Asia, they are harvested commercially as food for humans and domesticated animals. They are an important object of study in zoology as they provide indications about the evolutionary origins of the vertebrates. Lancelets serve as an intriguing comparison point for tracing how vertebrates have evolved and adapted. Although lancelets split from vertebrates more than 520 million years ago, their genomes hold clues about evolution, particularly how vertebrates have employed old genes for new functions. They are regarded as similar to the archetypal vertebrate form.
The first representative organism of the group to be described was Branchiostoma lanceolatum. It was described by Peter Simon Pallas in 1774 as molluscan slugs in the genus Limax. It was not until 1834 that Gabriel Costa brought the phylogenetic position of the group closer to the agnathan vertebrates ( hagfish and lampreys), including it in the new genus Branchiostoma (from the Greek, branchio = "gills", stoma = "mouth"). In 1836, Yarrel renamed the genus as Amphioxus (from the Greek: "pointed on both sides"), now considered an obsolete synonym of the genus Branchiostoma. Today, the term "amphioxus" is still used as a common name for the Amphioxiformes, along with "lancelet", especially in the English language. A non-technical review of all aspects of lancelet biology is: Stokes, M. D. and Holland, N. D. 1998. American Scientist 86: 552-560. The genome of the Florida lancelet ( Branchiostoma floridae) has been sequenced.
Usage examples of "lancelet".
You will sit with us at the high table, Lancelet, and tell us all that has befallen you since you left my court.
No doubt Morgaine would have counselled her so, that she should go with Lancelet to the fires .
And now the dream haunted her while she sat working at the altar cloth she was making for the church, haunted her so deeply that it seemed wicked to sit working a cross in gold thread while she thought of Lancelet.
Well, done is done, and now I must ready myself to hear that Arthur is dead, I must think what I will do when Accolon returns -Gwenhwyfar shall go into a nunnery, or if she wishes to go beyond the seas to Less Britain with Lancelet, I will not stop them .
Had she borne such a child to Lancelet, then could that child have been fostered here in Avalon and reared to become one of the greatest of the Druids.
I wondered,” he said, “but all I heard of Lancelet was that it might be that he had fathered a son on the Queen and the child was spirited away somewhere to be fostered by that kinswoman of hers whom they married off to Lancelet .
She saw the pale silvery nose, the long mane like linen floss-a big horse, tall as Lancelet himself across the shoulders.
And Queen Gwenhwyfar has had to adopt sir Galahad there, who's the son of Lancelet and of her own cousin Elaine, for Arthur's heir!