Meanings
- biologyAn adaptation in which the mouth is reduced to a slit and its location is concealed.
The slit-like pseudostome is hidden by the dorsal lip and an extension of the ventral shell wall (cryptostomy).
2000, John J. Lee, Gordon F. Leedale, Phyllis Clarke Bradbury, An illustrated guide to the protozoa2 more examples
They are comparatively large, without outgrowths, of a rounded shape, with a flattened ventral surface and cryptostomy or plagiostomy with a lip.
1991, Biology Bulletin of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, page 279Two other morphological features, plagiostomy and cryptostomy, are considered to be adaptations to life in soil; both involve a reduction in the size of the pseudostome in proportion to the test and the formation of a vestibule (Fig. 11) and both tend, therefore, to protect the cell against dessicaation (Bonnet, 1961a, 1964).
2012, A Burgers, Soil Biology, page 170
Origin
Cite this entry
cryptostomy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cryptostomy
“cryptostomy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cryptostomy. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cryptostomy,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cryptostomy.
Source: cryptostomy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.