sea squirt


noun

any tunicate, especially a sessile ascidian, so called from its habit of contracting its body and ejecting streams of water when disturbed.

Origin of sea squirt

First recorded in 1840–50

Example sentences from the Web for sea squirt

British Dictionary definitions for sea squirt

sea squirt

noun

any minute primitive marine animal of the class Ascidiacea, most of which are sedentary, having a saclike body with openings through which water enters and leaves See also ascidian

Scientific definitions for sea squirt

sea squirt

Any of various tunicates of the class Ascidiacea, having a transparent sac-shaped body with two siphons. One of the siphons is used to draw water (carrying oxygen and food particles) into the body, while the other expels it. Sea squirts are free-swimming as larvae but sessile as adults. Like other tunicates, sea squirts are chordates, but they have a notochord only in the larval stage.