coccolithophore

English

Etymology

From 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)

1. 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, Granta Books, published 2013, 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.

   • 2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: The First 100 Million Years, Penguin, published 2019, page 27:

     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.

Derived terms

• coccolith
• heterococcolithophore
• holococcolithophore

Related terms

• coccolithophorid

French

Noun

coccolithophore m (plural coccolithophores)

1. coccolithophore