Coccoliths are individual plates or scales of calcium carbonate formed by coccolithophores (single-celled phytoplankton such as Emiliania huxleyi) and cover the cell surface arranged in the form of a spherical shell, called a coccosphere.

Coccolithophores, or coccolithophorids, are single-celled organisms which are part of the phytoplankton, the autotrophic (self-feeding) component of the plankton community.

coccolith, minute calcium carbonate platelet or ring secreted by certain organisms (coccolithophores, classed either as protozoans or algae) and imbedded in their cell membranes.

Coccoliths are exoskeletal plates produced by microscopic algae, which form chalk sediments. They are made by one of the most important eukaryote phyto plankton. These are single celled protists whose full name is coccolithophorids or coccolithophores. The spherical skeleton of coccoliths is known as the coccosphere.

Coccolithophores are one-celled marine plants that surround themselves with a microscopic plating made of limestone (calcite).

Coccolith is a collective term that designates all of the biomineralized, calcified scales produced by extant and extinct haptophytes.

The meaning of COCCOLITH is a minute calcareous body found in chalk and deep-sea ooze and constituting the skeletal remains of a coccolithophore.

2016年2月5日 · In general, coccoliths are very regularly shaped, fine calcite platelets that are produced by unicellular, autotrophic (that is, capable of synthesizing their own food from inorganic substances), marine algae – the so-called Coccolithophorida (phylum: Haptophyta; class: Prymnesiophyceae).

Coccoliths are an important group of microfossils much used in paleoceanographic studies. They are minute (typically 1–10 µ) calcite platelets that are produced by unicellular planktonic algae, coccolithophores. In life, the individual coccolithophore cell is typically almost entirely covered by coccoliths, forming an exoskeleton or coccosphere.

Individual coccoliths range in size from about 1 μm up to 30 μm in diameter, the commonest rock-forming species being from 5–10 μm. Each coccolith consists of numerous minute calcite crystallites, arranged in orderly patterns that differ from one species to another.