Graptolite Definition

grăptə-līt
noun
Any of numerous extinct colonial marine animals chiefly of the orders Dendroidea and Graptoloidea of the late Cambrian to the early Mississippian Periods, whose fossil remains are often used to date the rocks of the Silurian and Ordovician ages.
American Heritage

Other Word Forms of Graptolite

Noun

Singular:
graptolite
Plural:
graptolites

Origin of Graptolite

  • Greek graptos written (from graphein to write graphic) –lite (from the resemblance of the fossils' impressions on shale to markings on a slate)

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • From Ancient Greek γραπτός (graptos, “painted, marked with letters") +"Ž -lite.

    From Wiktionary

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