coccolith

[ kok-uh-lith ]

noun

1. a microscopic calcareous disk or ring making up part of the covering of certain marine plankton and forming much of the content of chalk rocks.

coccolith

/ ˈkɒkəlɪθ /

noun

1. any of the round calcareous plates in chalk formations: formed the outer layer of unicellular plankton

Other Words From

• cocco·lithic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of coccolith¹

1865–70; < New Latin Coccolithus originally a genus name; coccus, -o-, -lith

Word History and Origins

Origin of coccolith¹

C19: New Latin, from Greek kokkos berry + lithos stone

Example Sentences

Small holes in coccolith fossils indicate that the survivors possessed whiplike flagella that let them move and stalk other organisms.

From Scientific American

Eventually coccolith survivors picked up photosynthesis again, revitalizing the ocean's food webs when light returned.

From Scientific American

Coccoliths were among these energy converters in the Cretaceous, and about 90 percent of coccolith species went extinct after impact.

From Scientific American

And when Spencer says "it is impossible even to imagine those processes going on in organic matter out of which emerges the dynamic element in Life," or when he illustrates his difficulty by pointing out how impossible it is to give a physico-chemical interpretation of the way a plant cell makes its wall, or a coccolith its imbricated covering, or a sponge its spicules, or a hen eats broken egg-shells, we do not believe he was thinking of anything but "phenomenal causation."

From Project Gutenberg

High primary productivity is recorded during OAE1a also above the CIE and in several mid-Cretaceous intervals: They contain common mesotrophic taxa, but coccolith dwarfism is not recorded.

From Science Magazine