: a phylum or other major division of Metazoa that comprises triploblastic bilaterally symmetrical invertebrate animals lacking a true coelom and having nonstriated musculature, a nonmetameric nervous system, and a primitive or no circulatory system and that includes Platyhelminthes, Nemertea, Acanthocephala, Gastrotricha, Rotifera, Nematoda, Nematomorpha, Kinorhyncha, and Entoprocta compare aschelminthes
Word History
Etymology
New Latin, from scolec- + -ida
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