‖ phytozoon
(faɪtəʊˈzəʊən, fɪtəʊ-)
Also phytoˈzoum. Pl. -ˈzoa.
[f. Gr. ϕυτό-ν plant + ζῶον animal; lit. ‘plant-animal’; cf. zoophyte.]
1. Zool. A plant-like animal or zoophyte; a single polyp in a zoophyte. (The pl. Phytozoa has been variously applied in different classifications to animals supposed to be plant-like in some way, but is not a term of modern Zoology.)
| 1842 Brande Dict. Sc., etc., Phytozoons, Phytozoa,..this term is applied by various naturalists to different sections of the sub-kingdom Zoophyta of Cuvier. 1846 Dana Zooph. i. (1848) 7 note, Ehrenberg has proposed to substitute phytozoa, derived from the same roots [as Zoophyte]..and phytozoum refers only to a single polyp. 1858 Mayne Expos. Lex., Phytozoum, applied by Eichwald to a type of the animal kingdom comprehending animals in which (Polypi, Hydræ, Corallia) the inorganic texture gives place to that of vegetables, the exterior only presenting the character of animality in the homogeneous mass which constitutes it. 1861 H. Macmillan Footnotes fr. Nat. 31 This granular matter..is resolved into a mass of apparently living animalcules called phytozoa. |
2. Bot. A male generative cell, a spermatozoid.
| 1861 Bentley Man. Bot. 370 Minute cells called sperm⁓cells,..in which are developed spiral ciliated filaments,..termed spermatozoids or phytozoa. |