sclerodermite

plural sclerodermites

1. biologyThe hard integument of crustaceans.

   In fact each zoonite in turn is formed of several distinct parts or sclerodermites, which also, by welding together, produce arrests of development and atrophied members.

   1894, M. Berthelot, “Biographical Sketch of Henry Milne Edwards”, in Report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, page 721

   Synonyms: sclerenchyma

2. biologyA calcareous support structure, such as that produced by the corals in the Scleractinia order, by sclerosponges, and by some sea cucumbers.

   The same is true of the sclerodermites of Holothuroidea but it is not true of other echinoderm microfossils, such as echinoid pedicellariæ and microcrinoids.

   1963, University of Glasgow. Geological Department, Papers - Volume 25 -, page 153

   4 more examples

   The most recent study has been made by Hayasi (78), who finds that the calcareous lamellae which form the sclerodermites are formed by secretions of the calicoblasts and that the latter are not themselves calcified.

   1943, Thomas Wayland Vaughan, John West Wells, Revision of the Suborders Families, and Genera of the Scleractinia, page 32

   Where the sclerodermites are arranged in a linear series making an almost continuous ( commonly zig-zag, Fig.38) line of centres of calcification, the resulting trabecula has a circular cross-section equal to the equatorial section of a single sclerodermite.

   1972, Carbonate Sediments and Their Diagenesis, page 26

   Observations made during microprobe analysis and with SEM indicate that calcitized sclerodermite centers are concentrated in horizons parallel to growth banding.

   1995, Susan J. Gaffey, Victor P. Zabielski, Charles Bronnimann, “Roles of Organics and Water in Preneomorphic and Early Neomorphic Alteration of Coralline Aragonites from San Salvador Island, Bahamas”, in H. Allen Curran, Brian White, editor, Terrestrial and shallow marine geology of the Bahamas and Bermuda, page 240

   The aspicular, aragonitic skeleton of a living sphictozoid (Neocoelia) lacks the sclerodermite microstructure in other aragonitic skeletons indicating a significant difference in the pattern of crystallization. The absence of entrapped siliceous spicules in this sponge does not appear to be the cause for the lack of sclerodermites since in Merlia sclerodermites are present but entrapped spicules are not ( Hartman and Goreau, 1970).

   2012, T.L. Simpson, The Cell Biology of Sponges, page 158