zooxanthella

Meaning

Noun

• Any of the yellow pigmentary particles, or minute corpuscles of yellow coloring matter, found in certain radiolarians.
• Any of various typically yellow-brown dinoflagellates (originally grouped as genus Zooxanthella (genus)) now assigned to the genera Symbiodinium (genus) and Amphidinium (genus), notably found in coral reefs.

Origin

• From (deprecated) genus name Zooxanthella (genus), from Ancient Greek ζῷον + ξανθός + -ella.