cryptozoic1
/ˌkrɪptəˈzəʊɪk
/adjective Ecology
(Of small invertebrates) living on the ground but hidden in the leaf litter under stones or pieces of wood: scorpions are shy or cryptozoic...
- This may account in part for the paucity of crepuscular to nocturnal or cryptozoic to fossorial skink lineages in the interior.
- The very luxuriance of the vegetation, however, with its unlimited hiding-places for cryptozoic animals, made the task of collection more difficult than it would have been in a clearer neighbourhood, where the animals are concentrated, as it were, in a comparatively few spots.
Derivatives
cryptozoa
- The term cryptozoa was coined by him to describe the light-abhorring animals found under logs or stones in damp, dark situations.
- Student supervision has involved projects in the general field of ecology of cryptozoa.
- They are members of that large category of animals known descriptively (not taxonomically) as cryptozoa, or hidden animals.
Origin
Late 19th century: from Greek kruptos 'hidden' + zōē 'life' + -ic.
Cryptozoic2
/ˌkrɪptəˈzəʊɪk/adjective Geology
Relating to or denoting the period (the Precambrian) in which rocks contain no, or only slight, traces of living organisms. Compare with Phanerozoic.The term ‘Precambrian’ is still used for Cryptozoic rocks, but tends to be applied loosely to formations lying beneath identified Cambrian strata and of uncertain age....
- The Cryptozoic rocks are exposed in the continental shield areas and show patterns of orogenic activity.
Origin
Early 20th century: from Greek kruptos 'hidden' + zōē 'life' + -ic.