arthropods

Cultural  

1. A phylum, or major division of the animal kingdom. Arthropods are animals with jointed legs and segmented bodies, such as insects, spiders, centipedes, and crustaceans. There are more species of arthropods than of any other animal phylum.

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Example Sentences

It represents a transitional form, linking earlier Cambrian arthropods that seem to lack chelicera with later horseshoe crab-like species known as synziphosurines.

From Science Daily • Apr. 3, 2026

They also found many arthropods -- a family that includes modern-day crabs and insects -- including spiny, stalk-eyed creatures called radiodonts which were the apex predator of the time.

From Barron's • Jan. 28, 2026

Their analysis shows that over the past five centuries, extinctions among plants, arthropods, and land vertebrates actually reached their highest point about a century ago and have been declining since.

From Science Daily • Oct. 27, 2025

Ticks are active throughout the year in California, but risk typically peaks in the spring when the biting arthropods are born, and in fall, after the first rains.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 18, 2025

However, it belongs to the same group of arthropods as the blue crab, has essentially the same physiology, and would presumably suffer the same effects.

From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson