Crossword clues for zoophyte
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Zoophyte \Zo"["o]*phyte\, n. [F. zoophyte, Gr. ?; zw^,on an animal + ? plant, akin to ? to be born, to be. See Zodiac, and Be, v. i.] (Zo["o]l.)
Any one of numerous species of invertebrate animals which more or less resemble plants in appearance, or mode of growth, as the corals, gorgonians, sea anemones, hydroids, bryozoans, sponges, etc., especially any of those that form compound colonies having a branched or treelike form, as many corals and hydroids.
Any one of the Zo["o]phyta.
Wiktionary
n. (context biology English) Any of various invertebrate animals which resemble plants, such as sponges, corals and sea anemones.
WordNet
n. any of various invertebrate animals resembling a plant such as a sea anemone or coral or sponge
Wikipedia
A zoophyte is an animal that visually resembles a plant. An example is a sea anemone. The name is obsolete in modern science.
Zoophytes are common in medieval and renaissance era herbals, notable examples including the Tartar Lamb, a plant which grew sheep as fruit. Zoophytes appeared in many influential early medical texts, such as Dioscorides's De Materia Medica and subsequent adaptations and commentaries on that work, notably Mattioli's Discorsi. Zoophytes are frequently seen as medieval attempts to explain the origins of exotic, unknown plants with strange properties (such as cotton, in the case of the Tartar Lamb). Reports of zoophytes continued into the seventeenth century and were commented on by many influential thinkers of the time period, including Francis Bacon. It was not until 1646 that claims of zoophytes began to be concretely refuted, and skepticism towards claims of zoophytes mounted throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. However, the term was still used by Georges Cuvier in his Le Règne Animal in 1817, as the title of one of his four divisions of the animal kingdom.
Usage examples of "zoophyte".
I had placed myself at the port-scuttle, and saw some magnificent substructures of coral, zoophytes, seaweed, and fucus, agitating their enormous claws, which stretched out from the fissures of the rock.
Among the molluscs and zoophytes, I found in the meshes of the net several species of alcyonarians, echini, hammers, spurs, dials, cerites, and hyalleae.
Have you sufficiently observed the wonders it covers, its fishes, its zoophytes, its parterres of sponges, and its forests of coral?
Haast supposes, be a ground feeder, existing on the smaller hydroid zoophytes, otherwise it must, I think, turn on its side in seizing its prey.
Haast supposes, be a ground feeder, existing on the smaller hydroid zoophytes, otherwise it must, I think, turn on its side in seizing its prey.
It was on the coast of Tehama, for there not only did this display of zoophytes flourish beneath the level of the sea, but they also formed picturesque interlacings which unfolded themselves about sixty feet above the surface, more capricious but less highly coloured than those whose freshness was kept up by the vital power of the waters.
I recognised magnificent rocks, hung with a tapestry of zoophytes of the most beautiful kind, and I was at first struck by the peculiar effect of this medium.
Having nothing better to do, I thought of dragging these beautiful limpid waters, under which I saw a profusion of shells, zoophytes, and marine plants.
I caught a glimpse of pieces of stone covered with millions of zoophytes and masses of sea weed.
There were vast heaps of stone, amongst which might be traced the vague and shadowy forms of castles and temples, clothed with a world of blossoming zoophytes, and over which, instead of ivy, sea-weed and fucus threw a thick vegetable mantle.
The zoophytes of the transitional period returned to nothingness in their turn.
The first indications that life was astir are vestiges of comparatively simple and lowly things: the shells of small shellfish, the stems and flowerlike heads of zoophytes, seaweeds and the tracks and remains of sea worms and crustacea.
The little crustacea, the small shellfish, the zoophytes and algae we should find there would display a quite striking resemblance to these clumsier, larger prototypes that once were the crown of life upon our planet.
The zoophytes of the period of transition in their turn sank into annihilation.