rotifer
noun
ro·ti·fer ˈrō-tə-fər 
: any of a class (Rotifera of the phylum Aschelminthes) of minute usually microscopic but many-celled chiefly freshwater aquatic invertebrates having the anterior end modified into a retractile disk bearing circles of strong cilia that often give the appearance of rapidly revolving wheels
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web Radiocarbon dating revealed the rotifer to be twenty-four thousand years old. 
Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker, 10 Jan. 2022 But even that near-suspension of animation would have nothing on a rotifer: one of these microscopic animals, pulled out of Siberian permafrost, spent the past 25,000 years in a frozen nap before being reanimated. Andrea Thompson, Scientific American, 27 Dec. 2021 A month later, a microscopic, wormlike invertebrate known as a bdelloid rotifer was crawling around inside. Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker, 10 Jan. 2022 And in one sample collected in 2015, the researchers found this one little rotifer. Karen Hopkin, Scientific American, 17 Aug. 2021 Researchers confirmed the rotifer’s advanced age by radiocarbon dating the surrounding soil. Alex Fox, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 June 2021 The hardy rotifer can live through all manner of conditions, but this is a historic feat even for this tiny creature. Wired, 27 June 2021 Among rotifer classes, bdelloids have the fairly unusual ability to reproduce parthenogenetically—i.e., by cloning—and so the original specimens had already begun to do so. Wired, 27 June 2021 Scientists were able to revive a tiny, multicellular animal called a bdelloid rotifer that had been frozen in the Siberian permafrost for 24,000 years, reports Marion Renault for the New York Times. Alex Fox, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 June 2021 See More
Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker, 10 Jan. 2022 But even that near-suspension of animation would have nothing on a rotifer: one of these microscopic animals, pulled out of Siberian permafrost, spent the past 25,000 years in a frozen nap before being reanimated. Andrea Thompson, Scientific American, 27 Dec. 2021 A month later, a microscopic, wormlike invertebrate known as a bdelloid rotifer was crawling around inside. Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker, 10 Jan. 2022 And in one sample collected in 2015, the researchers found this one little rotifer. Karen Hopkin, Scientific American, 17 Aug. 2021 Researchers confirmed the rotifer’s advanced age by radiocarbon dating the surrounding soil. Alex Fox, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 June 2021 The hardy rotifer can live through all manner of conditions, but this is a historic feat even for this tiny creature. Wired, 27 June 2021 Among rotifer classes, bdelloids have the fairly unusual ability to reproduce parthenogenetically—i.e., by cloning—and so the original specimens had already begun to do so. Wired, 27 June 2021 Scientists were able to revive a tiny, multicellular animal called a bdelloid rotifer that had been frozen in the Siberian permafrost for 24,000 years, reports Marion Renault for the New York Times. Alex Fox, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 June 2021 See More Word History
Etymology
ultimately from Latin rota + -fer
First Known Use
1777, in the meaning defined above
Medical Definition
rotifer
noun
ro·ti·fer ˈrōt-ə-fər
: any member of the class Rotifera