sclerobase Zool.
(ˈsklɪərəʊbeɪs)
Also in mod.L. form scleˈrobasis.
[f. Gr. σκληρό-ς hard + βάσις base n., basis.]
The axis or stem of a compound actinozoan when forming a horny or calcareous skeleton. Hence sclerobasic a., pertaining to or consisting of a sclerobase; also as the epithet of those corals (in mod.L. Sclerobasica) which have a sclerobase.
| 1861 J. R. Greene Cœlent. 153 The ‘sclerobasic’ corallum, a true tegumentary excretion, formed by the conversion of successive growths from the outer surface of the ecderon. Ibid. 154 Section of a sclerobasis shows it to be, in some cases, solid or nearly so. Ibid. 156, Fig. 28 θ, epitheca; I, sclerobase. 1870 H. A. Nicholson Man. Zool. I. xiii. 99 There may be no corallum, or rarely a ‘sclerobasic’ one. 1877 Huxley Anat. Inv. Anim. iii. 161 It is in these Octocoralla that the form of skeleton which is termed a sclerobase..occurs. 1879 Stormonth Man. Sci. Terms s.v. Sclerobasic, Forming a solid axis invested by the soft parts of the animal—called the sclerobase. |