Dinobryon

noun

Di·nob·ry·on

dīnäbrēən,

-ēˌän

: a genus of plantlike flagellates (order Chrysomonadina) having delicate cuplike tests and sometimes fouling water supplies

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin, from dino- dino- + Greek brýon "moss-like plant"

Note: Name introduced by the German zoologist and microbiologist Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (1795-1876) in "Dritter Beitrag zur Erkenntniss grosser Organisation in der Richtung des kleinsten Raumes, Abhandlungen der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1833 (1835), p. 279. Ehrenberg's vernacular rendering of the Latin name as Wirbelmossthierchen ("little whirling moss animal") renders the etymology fairly evident.