Coat-of-mail Shell (Noun)
Meaning
Primitive elongated bilaterally symmetrical marine mollusk having a mantle covered with eight calcareous plates.
Classification
Nouns denoting animals.
Examples
- Chitons have eight articulately hinged calcareous plates, called a coat-of-mail shell, that often have distinctive shapes, colors, and textures.
- The chiton's coat-of-mail shell is designed to provide protection against predators that try to crack its calcareous plates.
- Chiton coats-of-mail shell plates are typically dark-colored, but some species exhibit vibrant pink or red colors on their plates.
- Chiton shells often become coated with other marine organisms such as algae, making the coat-of-mail shell itself less visible.
- Polyplacophorans, commonly known as chitons, possess the only mollusk innovation other than the nacreous coat-of-mail shell: the radula.