Coccolithophore

Quick meaning: Coccolithophore is a noun meaning Any of many minute mostly marine planktonic biflagellated organisms with brown chromatophores and complex calcareous, less commonly siliceous, shells.

Meaning

Any of many minute mostly marine planktonic biflagellated organisms with brown chromatophores and complex calcareous, less commonly siliceous, shells.

Example Sentences

It was filled with a kind of golden-brown planktonic algae known as coccolithophores, whose skeletons would form the chalks that underlie parts of Britain, Belgium and France today.

Chalk formations such as the white cliffs of Dover are largely composed of the bodies of countless billions of coccolithophores that bloomed, died and then sank to the seabed each season for millions of years.

Word Forms

• coccolithophores

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include coccolithophorid, coccolithophoride, discolith, holococcolithophore, heterococcolithophore, heterococcolith.

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