Cephalopoda

2 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Cephalopoda \Ceph`a*lop"o*da\ (s[e^]f`[.a]*l[o^]p"[-o]*d[.a]),
     n. pl. [NL., gr. Gr. kefalh` head + -poda: cf. F.
     c['e]phalopode.] (Zool.)
     The highest class of Mollusca.
     [1913 Webster]
  


     Note: They have, around the front of the head, a group of
           elongated muscular arms, which are usually furnished
           with prehensile suckers or hooks. The head is highly
           developed, with large, well organized eyes and ears,
           and usually with a cartilaginous brain case. The higher
           forms, as the cuttlefishes, squids, and octopi, swim
           rapidly by ejecting a jet of water from the tubular
           siphon beneath the head. They have a pair of powerful
           horny jaws shaped like a parrot's beak, and a bag of
           inklike fluid which they can eject from the siphon,
           thus clouding the water in order to escape from their
           enemies. They are divided into two orders, the
           {Dibranchiata}, having two gills and eight or ten
           sucker-bearing arms, and the {Tetrabranchiata}, with
           four gills and numerous arms without suckers. The
           latter are all extinct except the {Nautilus}. See
           {Octopus}, {Squid}, {Nautilus}.
           [1913 Webster] Cephalopodic

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  Cephalopoda
       n : octopuses; squids; cuttlefish; pearly nautilus [syn: {class
           Cephalopoda}]