pseudocoelomate, a. and n. Zool.
Brit. /ˌs(j)uːdəʊˈsiːlə(ʊ)meɪt/, U.S. /ˌsudoʊˈsiləˌmeɪt/
[‹ pseudo- comb. form + cœlomate n., after scientific Latin Pseudocoelomata, subphylum or group name (W. Schimkewitsch 1891, in Biol. Centralblatt 11 293) and (in later use) pseudocoelom n.]
A. adj. Having, or of the nature of, a pseudocoelom; belonging to, characteristic of, or designating invertebrates of the group Pseudocoelomata.
| 1940 L. H. Hyman Invertebrates I. ii. 35 Among the Bilateria, three grades of structure are recognized, following Schimkevitch [sic] (1891), namely, the acoelomate, pseudocoelomate, and eucoelomate types. 1985 Cambr. Encycl. Life Sci. 409/1 The rotifers are aquatic, microscopic animals, less than 2 millimetres long... They have a pseudocoelomate body cavity. 1998 L. Margulis & K. V. Schwartz Five Kingdoms (ed. 3) iii. 254/1 In 1961, when the spacious priapulid body cavity was discovered to be seemingly lined with mesentery and thus considered a coelom, some researchers moved priapulids from pseudocoelomate to protostome coelomate status. |
B. n. An organism of the group Pseudocoelomata.
| 1961 Science 24 Mar. 879/1 In more recent publications they [sc. Priapulida] are classified usually as pseudocoelomates in the division Aschelminthes. 1980 Paleobiology 6 366/2 Clark points out what I have also come to appreciate, that the pseudocoel is an overworked concept. In many ‘pseudocoelomates’, such as gastrotrichs, it really does not exist. 1999 Nature 24 June 774/1 Brachiopods were often associated with the other ‘pseudocoelomates’ basal to the great majority of bilaterian phyla. |