Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various marine invertebrates of the phylum Ctenophora, having transparent or translucent gelatinous bodies bearing eight rows of comblike cilia used for swimming. Many ctenophores are bioluminescent.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One of the eight fringed or ciliated comb-bearing locomotive organs peculiar to the Ctenophora.
  • noun A member of the class Ctenophora; a ctenophoran.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) One of the Ctenophora.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any of various marine animals of the phylum Ctenophora, having lucent, mucilaginous bodies bearing eight rows of comblike cilia used for swimming.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun biradially symmetrical hermaphroditic solitary marine animals resembling jellyfishes having for locomotion eight rows of cilia arranged like teeth in a comb

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From New Latin Ctenophora, phylum name : Greek kteis, kten-, comb + New Latin -phora, from neuter pl. of Greek -phoros, -phore.]

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Examples

  • This ctenophore seems to be exhibiting bioluminescence, but what the “lights” actually represent is reflection or refraction of the photoflood lights from rhythmically beating cilia.

    Bloodybelly Comb Jelly 2009

  • Given the likelihood that the ctenophore lineage is the deepest branch among metazoans, let's have a closer look at the toolkit contained by these creatures to determine if the basic theme of front-loading evolution continues to hold up.

    As Expected 2008

  • Given the likelihood that the ctenophore lineage is the deepest branch among metazoans, let's have a closer look at the toolkit contained by these creatures to determine if the basic theme of front-loading evolution continues to hold up.

    2008 April - Telic Thoughts 2008

  • A first striking finding was the high number of SOX gene sequences recovered from both the cnidarian and the ctenophore representatives (10 and 13 from C. hemisphaerica and P. pileus, respectively).

    As Expected 2008

  • A strange ctenophore, related to comb jellies (aka "sea gooseberries").

    Yeah! frankwu 2007

  • The Atlantic ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi is considered one of most harmful aquatic invasive species in Europe.

    Aquatic invasive species 2008

  • An example of instability caused by a change in biodiversity is that of the introduction of the invasive, carnivorous ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi (a jellyfish-like animal) in the Black Sea, which caused the rapid loss of 26 major fisheries species and has been impli­cated (along with other factors) in the continued growth of the oxygen-deprived “dead” zone.

    Ecosystems and Human Well-being~ Biodiversity Synthesis~ Summary for Decision-makers 2008

  • Clearly more than a colony, a ctenophore might best be described as a society of highly organized and interdependent cells.

    Individuals, societies, and the classification of organisms 2007

  • Invoking a magical dude in the sky - whether that magic dude is Zeus, Odin, YHWH, FSM, the invisible pink unicorn, or even a hyperintelligent giant ctenophore may it bless us with its divine cilia that disappears whenever it is looked at - is certainly a paradigm shift.

    Nothing New Under the Sun - The Panda's Thumb 2005

  • Primary responsibilities are the expansion, organization, and maintenance of cloning libraries derived from cnidarian, ctenophore, crustacean, fish and avian model organisms.

    Naturejobs - All Jobs 2010

  • By studying the pattern of chromosomes at the base of the animal evolutionary tree breaking and fusing together, a team of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, University of Vienna, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and University of California, Santa Cruz, determined that comb jellies, more formally known as ctenophores, are in fact the closest relatives of the first animals.

    The Closest Living Relative of the First Animal Has Finally Been Found Viviane Callier 2023

Comments

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  • Kteis + pherein = comb carriers. Yes, nice name. Thanks John!

    March 12, 2008