protoorganism

See also: proto-organism

English

Alternative forms

• proto-organism

Etymology

proto- +‎ organism

Noun

protoorganism (plural protoorganisms)

1. (biology) An organism whose nature is so difficult to determine that it might be referred to either the animal or the vegetable kingdom.
   • 2013, Geoffrey Eglinton, Mary Teresa Joseph Murphy, Organic Geochemistry: Methods and Results‎^[1]:

     This tree represents a complex “phylogeny” of macromolecules all within one ancestral lineage, before the proto-organism.

Anagrams

• organotropism