coccolithophore
English
Etymology
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Ancient Greek κόκκος (kókkos, “grain, seed”) + λίθος (líthos, “stone”) + φόρος (phóros, “carry”); this compound references how the phytoplanktonic organism's life cycle results in the depositing of its microscopic seed-like calcic exoskeleton, forming calcite.
Noun
coccolithophore (plural coccolithophores)
- Any of many minute mostly marine planktonic biflagellated organisms with brown chromatophores and complex calcareous, less commonly siliceous, shells.
- 2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, 2013 edition, Granta Books, page 290:
- 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.