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Radiolarian definition

rādē-ō-lârē-ən
Any of various marine protozoans of the order (or phylum) Radiolaria, having rigid siliceous skeletons and spicules.
noun
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Any of several classes of one-celled deep-sea protozoans with long, slender pseudopodia and a spiny, or solid but perforated, skeleton of silica.
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Any of various marine protozoans of the group Radiolaria, having rigid skeletons usually made of silica. The skeletons are usually spherically symmetrical and structurally complex, containing elaborate patterns of perforations (through which pseudopods extend) and often spicules. Skeletal remains of radiolarians sink to form ooze on the ocean floor, and prehistoric radiolarian ooze has fossilized to become chert and flint.
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Any of many marine amoeboid protozoa, of subclass Radiolaria, having filamentous pseudopodia; they have intricate silica skeletons.
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Other Word Forms

Noun

Singular:
radiolarian
Plural:
radiolaria, radiolarians

Origin of radiolarian

  • From New Latin Radiolāria order name from Late Latin radiolus diminutive of Latin radius ray

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

  • From New Latin radiolaria +"Ž -an

    From Wiktionary

Radiolarian Sentence Examples

  • At Esperanza and other places in the Santa Clara province, bituminous plant-bearing beds occur beneath the Tertiary limestones, and at Baracoa a Radiolarian earth occupies a similar position.

  • The silica, in the form of diatom or radiolarian skeletons, is eventually deposited on the ocean floor after the death of the organisms. Most of the fine colloidal clay is, however, deposited as river-sludges when the fresh water carrying it mixes with denser sea-water.

  • To this inconceivably slowly-growing deposit of inorganic material over the ocean floor there is added an overwhelmingly more rapid contribution of the remains of calcareous and siliceous planktonic and benthonic organisms, which tend to bury the slower accumulating material under a blanket of globigerina, pteropod, diatom or radiolarian ooze.

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Words near radiolarian in the Dictionary