chaetognathn.adj.
/ˈkiːtənaθ/, U.S. /ˈkidɑɡˌnæθ/ Zoology.
A. n.
An animal of the phylum Chaetognatha; an arrow worm.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > invertebrates > subkingdom Metazoa > grade Triploblastica or Coelomata > phylum Chaetognatha > [noun] > member of
arrow worm1859
chaetognath1874
1874 J. D. Dana Man. Geol. (ed. 2) ii. 123 The Annelids include..free swimming oceanic species, called Chætognaths (Sagittæ).
1896 A. E. Shipley in Cambr. Nat. Hist. II. 191 S[agitta] hexaptera is the largest Chaetognath known.
1922 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 8 224 Others are quite isolated, like the nemerteans, phoronids, brachiopods, chætognaths and echinoderms.
1962 D. Nichols Echinoderms x. 131 Other lesser phyla of the coelomates with three pairs of coelomic sacs, such as the chaetognaths.
2002 Science 4 Oct. 9/3 A chaetognath, or arrow worm, adds to the sparse fossil record for a phylum that has survived in the oceans until the present.
B. adj.
Of or relating to the phylum Chaetognatha.
ΚΠ
1880 Amer. Naturalist 14 885 Hertwig's Chætognath Worms.—A careful elaboration of the morphology and development of the Sagitta, the type of the Chætognathi, that singular type of worms.
1937 W. C. Allee & K. P. Schmidt Hesse's Ecol. Animal Geogr. xiii. 241 To this group [sc. holopelagic animals] belong all radiolarians, many Foraminifera,..most siphonophores and ctenophores, the chaetognath worms, [etc.].
1958 J. E. Morton Molluscs ix. 172 Their buccal armature gives them some of the advantage of both cephalopods and chaetognath worms.
1990 P. Willmer Invertebr. Relationships iii. 67 The abundant fossil conodonts were sometimes in the past interpreted as chaetongnath spines.
2004 C. B. Miller Biol. Oceanogr. vi. 126/2 Chaetognath reproduction is hermaphroditic, generally protandrous.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.adj.1874