: any of a phylum (Ctenophora) of marine animals superficially resembling jellyfishes but having biradial symmetry and swimming by means of eight bands of transverse ciliated plates
Recent Examples on the WebThese parasitic amphipods bore to their host’s stomach, sometimes in large enough numbers that the victim looks more like a strainer than a jellyfish or ctenophore. Leslie Nemo, Scientific American, 8 June 2021 Mike Ford and Allen Collins spotted the ctenophore and recognized it as a new species. Lauren M. Johnson, CNN, 28 Nov. 2020 Both papers, which employed more extensive data and more sophisticated analysis methods than the 2008 effort, support the ctenophore-first tree.Quanta Magazine, 25 Mar. 2015 Moroz and his collaborators published a second ctenophore genome, the sea gooseberry, in Nature in 2014.Quanta Magazine, 25 Mar. 2015 By far the most controversial of these changes was the suggestion that ctenophores should replace sponges as the earliest branch of animals.Quanta Magazine, 25 Mar. 2015 Comb Jellies Comb jellies aren’t jellyfish, but a separate group called ctenophores which don’t have numerous tentacles or pack a sting.National Geographic, 30 June 2018 See More
Word History
Etymology
ultimately from Greek kten-, kteis + pherein to carry — more at bear