Definition of vestimentiferan in English:
vestimentiferan
nounˌvɛstɪmɛnˈtɪfərənˌvestəˌmenˈtifərən
Zoology A very large marine worm which lives in upright tubes near hydrothermal vents, subsisting on the products of chemoautotrophic bacteria.
Order Vestimentifera, phylum Pogonophora; sometimes regarded as a separate phylum
Example sentencesExamples
- Both Black et al. and Halanych et al. calibrated the divergence of these genes using a mammal molecular clock and suggested that the modern vestimentiferans originated less than 100 million years ago.
- The taxonomic status of the vestimentiferans has been the subject of considerable debate recently.
- The Figueroa vent assemblage is dominated numerically by vestimentiferan tube worms, as are all the other known fossil vent assemblages where ‘tube worm’ fossils can be confidently identified as vestimentiferans.
- This seep assemblage is unusual for an ancient cold-seep site, because it was apparently dominated by one species of vestimentiferan.
- One of the most conspicuous groups of animals living in deep-sea chemosynthetic communities at hydrothermal vents are large vestimentiferan tube worms.
Origin
1980s: from modern Latin Vestimentifera (from Latin vestimentum 'clothing' + -fer 'bearing') + -an.