anemaria

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. In Haeckel's vocabulary of phylogeny, an evolutionary series of metazoic animals which have two primary germlayers and an intestinal cavity, but which are bloodless and devoid of a developed cœloma, or body-cavity. It is a series of gastræads, of which the type is the gastræa or gastrula-form, including the sponges, acœlomatous worms, and zoöphytes. It stands intermediate between the Protozoa and an evolutionary series which begins with the cœlomatous worms and ends with the vertebrates. See Hæmataria, and cut under gastrula.