nekton Zool.
(ˈnɛktən)
Also necton.
[ad. G. necton, nekton (E. Haeckel 1890, in Jenaische Zeitschr. Naturw. XXV. 251, 252), f. Gr. νεκτόν, neut. of νεκτός swimming, f. νεῖν to swim.]
A collective name for aquatic animals that are able to swim and move about independently. Cf. benthos, plankton. So nekˈtonic a.
| 1893 G. W. Field tr. Haeckel's Planktonic Stud. in Rep. U.S. Comm. Fisheries 1889–91 580 We must distinguish the actively swimming nekton from the passively drifting plankton. 1895 Natural Sci. July 31 The Plankton, Nekton, and Benthos form three well-marked communities of organisms. 1903 Amer. Geologist XXXI. 211 It has been asserted..that slowly creeping organisms preceded the planktonic and nektonic forms. 1909 Chambers's Jrnl. Dec. 784/1 The Nekton are those animals which are capable of vigorous swimming movements, and are able to migrate freely from one part of the sea to another. 1923 Nature 17 Mar. 374/2 The author concludes that the kerogen has arisen from ‘nectons and kelps’ which have ‘been repeatedly buried by ash and detritus from submarine volcanoes’. 1923 Glasgow Herald 17 Nov. 4/2 The animals of the sea are sometimes divided into the Nekton and the Plankton, the swimmers and the drifters. 1956 Nature 25 Feb. 375/2 Only one nektonic species apart from Thyrsites itself has been found to occur in Bass Strait at the time of year in question. 1969 Austral. Law Jrnl. XLIII. 430 The traditional biological classification of fish and fish like creatures into drifters or plankton, swimmers or necton, and the bottom dwellers or benthos. Ibid., The nectonic species of fish are divided into demersal and pelagic. 1974 Lucas & Critch Life in Oceans ii. 25 The nekton comprises all those animals, such as squid, cuttlefish, fishes, seals and whales, which are able to swim more or less powerfully and which are therefore independent of water movements for transport. 1975 Nature 17 Apr. 591/2 The stomachs of the fish contained the remains of nektonic, planktonic and benthic organisms. |