Definition of protostome in English:
protostome
noun ˈprəʊtə(ʊ)stəʊmˈprōdəˌstōm
Zoology A multicellular organism whose mouth develops from a primary embryonic opening, such as an annelid, mollusc, or arthropod.
Example sentencesExamples
- Once this had appeared, the protostomes could develop.
- In the complementary category, the protostomes, which includes annelids and arthropods, the blastopore develops into the mouth.
- If the ancestor of protostomes displayed a segmentation comparable to annelids and arthropods, this necessarily means that segmentation was lost independently in different protostome lineages.
- Arthropods are bilaterally symmetrical protostomes with strongly segmented bodies.
- These animals are all protostomes - the mouth develops before the anus in the young embryo - and they have long been recognized as belonging together as a group.
Origin
1950s: from proto- 'primitive' + Greek stoma 'mouth'.