co·mat·u·lid

(kə-măch′ə-lĭd)

[From New Latin Comātulidae, former family name, from Late Latin comātulus, having neatly curled hair, from Latin comātus, having long hair; see comate¹.]

co·mat′u·lid adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

comatulid

(kəˈmætjʊlɪd) or

comatula

n, pl -lids or -lae (-liː)

(Animals) any of a group of crinoid echinoderms, including the feather stars, in which the adults are free-swimming

[C19: from New Latin Comatulidae, from Comatula type genus, from Latin comātus hairy]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

comatulid - free-swimming stalkless crinoid with ten feathery arms; found on muddy sea bottoms

feather star

crinoid - primitive echinoderms having five or more feathery arms radiating from a central disk

Antedon, genus Antedon - a genus of echinoderms of the family Antedonidae

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

This phenomenon was initially described by Dendy (1886) as "evisceration." Furthermore, comatulid individuals with missing or regenerating visceral masses have frequently been identified in nature (Clark, 1915; Meyer, 1988).

Autotomy of the visceral mass in the feather star himeroinetra robustipinna (crinoidea, comatulida)

Comatulid crinoids have long, slender arms composed of a linear series of ossicles connected by muscles and ligaments (Breimer, 1978).

Flexural and Torsional Stiffness in Multi-Jointed Biological Beams

Grimmer and Holland (1987), however, showed experimentally that destruction of these coelomic canals did not affect recovery from flexure in the comatulid Florometra serratissima.

Rapid arm movements in stalked crinoids

Modern crinoids, e.g., stalkless comatulids or stalked isocrinids, spread their arms while feeding as a flat or parabolic filter fan oriented perpendicularly to the prevailing currents and with the ambulacral grooves directed down-current (Meyer 1979).

Elgaecrinus uralicus gen. et sp. nov., a new crotalocrinitid (Crinoidea, Echinodermata) from the Lower Devonian (Lochkovian) of the Middle Urals

Postmetamorphic (juvenile and adult) echinoderms are benthic organisms including starfish (asteroids), sea urchins (echinoids), sea cucumbers (holothuroids), brittle stars (ophiuroids), and comatulids and sea lilies (crinoids).

The skeleton of postmetamorphic echinoderms in a changing world

Microscopic anatomy and functional significance of the muscle-ligament-skeleton system in the arm of comatulids (Antedon mediterranea).

Contraction and stiffness changes in collagenous arm ligaments of the stalked crinoid Metacrinus rotundus (Echinodermata)

comm.) and in the comatulids Antedon bifida (Kelly and McKenzie, in press) and A.

The incidence and morphology of subcuticular bacteria in the echinoderm fauna of New Zealand