Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. See lancelet.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The lancelets, the typical genus of the family Amphioxidæ, whose body is compressed and tapers to a point at each end: a synonym of Branchiostoma (which see). See also cut under lancelet.
Wiktionary
- n. The lancelet
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) 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, vertebræ, nor red blood. It forms the type of groupAcrania ,Leptocardia , etc.
WordNet 3.0
- n. small translucent lancet-shaped burrowing marine animal; primitive forerunner of the vertebrates
Etymologies
- amphi- + Greek oxus, sharp; see ak- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“In fact, the very name amphioxus is from Greek words meaning "both-pointed," with reference to the two ends.”
“In passing from the primitive chordates, such as amphioxus, into the vertebrate subphylum, one passes from an unspecialized nerve cord to one in which the anterior end has developed into the brain.”
“This poor beastie is an amphioxus, though a more apposite appellation might have been "anxious".”
The Guardian: Brainless and faceless? Don't get me started… | Kevin McKenna
“The same mitochondrial DNA sequences placed echinoderms - which include starfish and sea urchins - in closer proximity to the vertebrates than amphioxus even though, being a chordate, we would expect amphioxus to be closer (Ref 2).”
“In going from amphioxus to jawless fish to jawed fish to land vertebrates we see an increase in complexity of the clotting cascade:”
“All of them are potentially testable via molecular clocks and whole-genome studies on a variety of protoverebrates we need the amphioxus genome, apparently due out this year and vertebrates, as well as reconstruction of the common ancestral proteins.”
“This is not dissimilar to the trypsin/prophenyloxidase system, in amphioxus, where a trypsin activates an enzyme prophenyloxidase to make gluggy melanin at wound sites 17.”
“The chordate amphioxus in modern taxonomy, Branchiostoma and its relatives, a protovertebrate that looks a bit like a minature eel, does clot its haemolymph.”
“Presence of prophenoloxidase in the humoral fluid of amphioxus Branchiostoma belcheri tsingtauense.”
“A tadpole-like beastie similar to the chordate amphioxus.”
Steve Steve and end of the Cambrian Explosion as we know it (part 1) - The Panda's Thumb
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘amphioxus’.
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fish list
lots and lots of fish, a piscatorial
wetdreamablet, agnathan, ahi, ahuru, ahuruhuru, albacore, albicore, alec, alewife, allice, allis, amberjack and 840 more...
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250 More Spelling Words
More words for intermediate and advanced spellers.
erethism, risus, zendik, agiotage, sciolism, fusain, mbaqanga, empyrean, chary, sialogogue, zingiber, kachina and 238 more...
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Dinosaurs
Just the animals themselves. (See the other gigantic tar-pit of a list called "Words of Dinosaurology" for other terms.) Also see this list for some dinosaurs that are considered "proto-birds."
aachenosaurus, abelisaurus, abrictosaurus, abrosaurus, acanthopholis, acanthostega, achelousaurus, acrocanthosaurus, actiosaurus, adasaurus, aeolosaurus, aegyptosaurus and 589 more...
Tweets
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