cryptobiosisn.
/ˌkrɪptə(ʊ)bʌɪˈəʊsɪs/, U.S. /ˌkrɪptəˌbaɪˈoʊsəs/ Biology.
1. Ecology. The practice of living in concealed habitats and remaining hidden from view, such as in cavities. Cf. cryptobiotic adj. 3. rare.
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1928 W. M. Wheeler Social Insects vi. 158 The habit of tunnelling through the wood and devouring it has naturally led to the development of a timid cryptobiosis.
2. Biology. A condition in which an organism (or an egg, seed, etc.) is in a dormant and resistant state without visible signs of life, remaining so until environmental or seasonal conditions are favourable for a return to normal activity. Cf. anabiosis n., cryptobiotic adj. 4a.
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the world > life > biology > biological processes > metabolism > [noun] > types of
disassimilation1809
dissimilation1830
anabolism1886
catabolism1889
basal metabolism1914
hypometabolism1932
hypermetabolism1937
cryptobiosis1959
methylotrophy1972
1959 D. Keilin in Proc. Royal Soc. B. 150 166 I should like to propose the term cryptobiosis, that is, latent life, for the state of an organism when it shows no visible signs of life and when its metabolic activity becomes hardly measurable, or comes reversibly to a standstill.
1971 Amer. Naturalist 105 563 A common kind of cryptobiosis..is anhydrobiosis—latent life induced by removal of water from the living system.
1987 M. S. Laverack & J. Dando Lect. Notes Invertebr. Zool. (ed. 3) xvi. 80/1 Some nematodes exhibit cryptobiosis or anabiosis.
2007 Guelph (Ont., Canada) Mercury (Nexis) 17 May a2 It's called cryptobiosis—a natural state of suspended animation—and when the eggs are released into salt water, they leave this state and hatch.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1928