metazoanadj.n.

1876 Amer. Naturalist 10 74 Of these he [sc. Haeckel] recognizes five as of primary importance: the ‘monerula’, or the first stage of metazoan development; [etc.].

1886 Encycl. Brit. XX. 419/1 The Metazoan segmentation of the ovum.

1904 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 15 Oct. 971 For every character presented by a Metazoan individual, a man for example, there is always a second character latent or dormant in his germ-cells.

1940 L. H. Hyman Invertebr. I. v. 252 The three lowest metazoan phyla, the Porifera, the Cnidaria, and the Ctenophora, are commonly stated to have remained at the gastrular level of construction.

1965 B. E. Freeman tr. A. Vandel Biospeleol. vii. 64 Those Metazoan groups which are almost exclusively marine are represented underground by very few species.

1993 Independent on Sunday 12 Sept. (Review Suppl.) 36/4 The genome system of any higher metazoan cell encodes 10,000 to 100,000 genes that orchestrate development of the embryo from a single cell.

1882 Amer. Naturalist 16 562 The special molecules of the Infusorian represent the special cells of the Metazoan.

1925 Ecology 6 449 The cells of metazoans are part of a system, which provides for its component units an increasingly uniform environment.

1940 L. H. Hyman Invertebr. I. v. 250 The ancestral metazoan would not have required a digestive sac or mouth.

1971 Nature 28 May 260/1 Gravity corers are widely used for the collection of the smallest marine metazoans (meiofauna) from subtidal grounds.

1984 E. J. Kormondy Concepts Ecol. (ed. 3) iii. 69 Most phosphate (and other nutrient) regeneration is done by protozoans and small metazoans in natural waters.

1993 E. N. K. Clarkson Invertebr. Palaeontol. & Evol. (ed. 3) iii. 57/1 These authorities [sc. Whittaker (1969) and Whittaker and Margulis (1978)] suggest five major kingdoms as follows: (a) Monera..; (b) Protoctista..; (c) Fungi..; (d) Plantae..; and (e) Animalia, including the sponges (parazoans) and multicellular heterotrophs (metazoans).