Lexic.us

Definition of Tunicata

1. Noun. Tunicates.

Definition of Tunicata

1. n. pl. A grand division of the animal kingdom, intermediate, in some respects, between the invertebrates and vertebrates, and by some writers united with the latter. They were formerly classed with acephalous mollusks. The body is usually covered with a firm external tunic, consisting in part of cellulose, and having two openings, one for the entrance and one for the exit of water. The pharynx is usually dilated in the form of a sac, pierced by several series of ciliated slits, and serves as a gill.

Medical Definition of Tunicata

1. A grand division of the animal kingdom, intermediate, in some respects, between the invertebrates and vertebrates, and by some writers united with the latter. They were formerly classed with acephalous mollusks. The body is usually covered with a firm external tunic, consisting in part of cellulose, and having two openings, one for the entrance and one for the exit of water. The pharynx is usually dilated in the form of a sac, pierced by several series of ciliated slits, and serves as a gill. most of the species when mature are firmly attached to foreign substances, but have free-swimming larvae which are furnished with an elongated tail and somewhat resemble a tadpole. In this state the larva has a urochord and certain other structures resembling some embryonic vertebrates. See Ascidian, Doliolum, Salpa, Urochord, and Illust. Of Social ascidian, under Social. Origin: NL. See Tunicate. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Tunicata

Literary usage of Tunicata

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. A Manual of the Common Invertebrate Animals: Exclusive of Insects by Henry Sherring Pratt (1916)
""A Revised Class, of tunicata," by WA Herdman, Jour. Linn. Soc. Zool., Vol. 23, p. ... "The Pelagic tunicata of the San Diego Region, excepting the ..."

2. The Microscope: Its History, Construction, and Application, Being a Familiar by Jabez Hogg (1861)
"... tunicata, Conchifera, Gasteropoda, ... and Cephalopoda; of these, nil, except the tunicata and a few of the ..."

3. Ocean World: A Description of the Sea & Its Living Inhabitants by Louis Figuier (1869)
"tunicata. On seeing one of the tunicata for the first time, a stranger to zoology ... Simple as is their organization, the tunicata have a nervous system. ..."

4. Handbook to the City of Dublin and the Surrounding District by Grenville Arthur James Cole, Robert Lloyd Praeger (1908)
"The only record I can find of tunicata found at Dublin is in a Report of the Dublin ... tunicata are alleged in the same report to be common on the North ..."

5. The Zoological Record ...: Being Records of Zoological Literature by Zoological Record Association (London, England), Zoological Society of London (1887)
"Notes on Variation in the tunicata, in the Liverpool Marine : Biology Committee's ... On some points in the Phylogeny of the tunicata. Nature, v, 33, No. ..."

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