Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A sea butterfly.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Having an alate podium, or winglike expansions of the foot, as a mollusk; of or pertaining to the Pteropoda. Also
pteropodous . - noun A mollusk of the class Pteropoda. The shell-bearing pteropods are the Thecosomata; the naked pteropods are the Gymnsomata; spiny pteropods belong to the family Cavoliniidæ, and spiral pteropods to the Limacinidæ; slipper-pteropods are Cymbuliidæ. Also
pteropode .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) One of the Pteropoda.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any of several small
marine gastropod mollusks , of the suborder Thecosomata, that have winglike lobes on the feet; thesea butterfly - adjective Of or pertaining to these creatures
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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In Orr et al. 2005, the damaging effects of keeping a live pteropod in undersaturated water are shown in microphotographs.
HAnsen and Schmidt: Predicting the Past – Continued « Climate Audit 2006
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Is it something analogous to the pteropod of an amoeba, which projects itself from the body, then retreats into it only to reappear in another place?
The Shadow World Hamlin Garland 1900
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Were they conceived from the contemplation of the carcasses of the ichthyosaurus and pteropod, and did the terror of men hear the sound of their feet in the tall grass and the wind howl when their voices filled the caves?
Over Strand and Field Gustave Flaubert 1850
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Growth cycle and related vertical distribution of the cosomatous pteropod
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Scientists caution the current frantic increase of seawater acidity is already causing serious problems for the pteropod, a sort of sea snail vital for the Arctic food chain.
News24 Top Stories 2010
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There is still a chance to save species like the pteropod, according to Iris Menn, a marine biologist with Greenpeace which shipped the giant test-tubes up to Svalbard.
News24 Top Stories 2010
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Rich stores of minerals have been accumulating on the floor of the continental shelf - some freighted down the rivers from the lands; some derived from sea creatures that have died and whose remains have drifted down to the bottom; some from the shells that once encase a diatom, the streaming protoplasm of a radiolarian, or the transparent tissues of a pteropod.
Migrations 2009
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Combine that situation with the summertime upwelling of deep, acidified water that occurs off B. C.'s coast and you have a substantial risk to an important food source for salmon: the pteropod or sea butterfly.
Climate Ark Climate Change & Global Warming RSS Newsfeed info@ecologicalinternet.org (Province: Ethan Baron 2009
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But Huseby's crush isn't unwarranted: The humble pteropod serves as food for a large variety of fish who become meals for larger fish as well as birds and mammals (and us!), making them vital to the marine food chain.
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Of particular interest was a swimming snail which 'spins' a mucus net to catch food, a carnivorous pteropod which feeds exclusively on its 'relatives, and a crustacean known as an
chained_bear commented on the word pteropod
In zoology: A pelagic marine gastropod belonging to the class Pteropoda, which includes molluscs having a modified foot bearing lobes which act as fins; a sea butterfly.
Isn't that lovely? A sea butterfly!
Also:
pteropod ooze, a calcareous marine sediment rich in the remains of the tests of pteropods.
February 3, 2007