| 释义 |
‖ Protozoa, n. pl. Zool.|prəʊtəʊˈzəʊə|
[mod.L. (Goldfuss, 1818 in Isis, June), f. Gr. πρωτο- proto- + ζῷα animals.]
One of the two (or three) great divisions of the animal kingdom, comprising animals of the simplest or most primitive type, each consisting of a single cell, usually of microscopic size: correlated with Metazoa (and Mesozoa). Also in sing. protozoon |-ˈzəʊɒn|, a member of the division Protozoa, a unicellular animal.
Under his Protozoa (= Urthiere) Goldfuss included also such higher forms of life as sponges, hydroids, corals, crinoids, Rotifera. Von Siebold, Anatomie d. wirbillosen Thiere, 1845, restricted it to the Infusoria and Rhizopoda, excluding the sponges, etc., which are now recognized as Metazoa.
a1834Coleridge Aids Refl. xv. (1839) 64 The lowest class of animals or protozoa..have neither brain nor nerves. 1853Dunglison Med. Lex., Protozoon. 1855H. Spencer Princ. Psychol. iii. v. 377 Those lowest organisms classed as protophyta and protozoa. 1859J. R. Greene Man. Anim. Kingd. i. Protozoa i. 1 The sub-kingdom Protozoa includes a number of animal beings of simple organisation, many of which have, until recently, been associated with the lower members of the vegetable kingdom. 1869Spectator 24 July 877 The analogy between the development of the species from the original protozoon and of the individual from the germ is quite Spencer's own. 1901G. N. Calkins Protozoa 28 note, The name ‘Protozoa’ given by Goldfuss, meant the same as Oken's ‘Urthiere’. It did not acquire its present significance until 1845, when von Siebold gave it a new meaning. |