oozooidn.
/əʊəˈzuːɔɪd/, /əʊəˈzəʊɔɪd/, /əʊəˈzuːɪd/, U.S. /ˌoʊoʊˈzoʊˌɔɪd/ Zoology.
In some tunicates: the zooid arising from the fertilized egg, which reproduces asexually by budding.In the order Doliolida also called a nurse zooid.
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1892 Proc. Royal Soc. 51 510 In a young colony..the oozooid has undergone great reduction in size, and is evidently dying away, while the two buds of the first generation, to which it gave rise, have grown considerably.
1935 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) B. 225 374 (caption) Transverse sections of a newly functional oozooid of Clavelina picta, showing the origin of the vascular septum of the stolon.
1987 M. S. Laverack & J. Dando Lect. Notes Invertebr. Zool. (ed. 3) xxxii. 182/2 The larval stage develops into a nurse zooid (oozooid) whilst still planktonic.
1995 C. Nielsen Animal Evol. lii. 416 The zygote develops into an oozooid which forms hundreds of small buds from a ventral stolon.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1892