zoo-, zoa-, zo-, -zoic, -zoid, -zoite, -zoal, -zonal, -zooid, -zoon, -zoa, -zoan

A slender rootlike outgrowth or filament on an alga or a fungus: Rhizoids are found on mosses, liverworts, and the reproductive cells of ferns that absorb nourishment in much the same way as a root.

Applied to animals living on dead or decaying matter; saprophagous: Such saprozoic organisms obtain their nourishment by ingesting broken down organic and inorganic substances, like some protozoans and nematodes do.

A saprozoic lifeform feeds on organic material in solution, rather than on solid organic material.

An animal that lives on dead or decaying organic matter: A saprozoite an be any organism, such as a protozoan, that absorbs its food from soluable organic matter, as from dead animal substances, dung, or from dead plants.

An animal disease that requires both a vertebrate host and a nonanimal (food, soil, plant) source or developmental location for the culmination of its life cycle.

Examples include:

• Botulism, a paralytic, often fatal illness, caused by ingestion of food contaminated with a preformed toxin.
• Coccidioidomycosis, an infection which is limited to the lungs and caused by inhalation of spores.
• Ascariasis, infestation of the gastrointestinal tract that may produce diarrhea and anorexia.
• Tungiasis, a disease caused by the chigoe flea, the female of which penetrates the human skin, often under the toenail, where she becomes greatly distended with eggs, causing a painful ulcer and inflammation.

A form of an animal arising from an asexual process of reproduction, in the manner of germination or fission: Schizozoite can occur in some worms.

Schizozoite can develop as a stage in the life cycle of certain sporozoan protozoa resulting from merogony (the development of a portion of an ovum).

Concerning spermatozoa: Mary learned in her biology class at school that a spermatozoic gamete was the male sexual reproductive cell having one set of unpaired chromosomes.

A ciliated and motile male gamete; antherozoid: A spermatozoid is free-swimming and originates in the antheridium of an alga, gymnosperm, or fern.

A male reproductive cell, usually consisting of a head, middle piece, and locomotory flagellum: A spermatozoon can unite with an ovum, or female reproductive cell, to form a fertilized ovum or egg.

A phylum consisting largely of mouthless protozoans that are all parasitic and have no obvious means of locomotion: Most of the minute unicellular organisms of the Sporozoa pass through a complicated life cycle involving an alternation of sexual and asexual reproduction and the formation of spores.

Some, such as the malaria parasite, live in the blood of the host; others may infest the gut or the muscles. They are often transmitted by blood-sucking insects.

Go to this Sporozoa link for additional information.

A stage of rapid development of protozoan coccidial (a subclass of protozoan) parasites: Tachyzoites invade cells of nearly any kind and multiply until the cell perishes after which the tachyzoites are set free to infest further cells.

Pertaining to a period in human history preceding the domestication of animals: During the theriozoic time, the animal kingdom included the fauna of a wild nature, not tamed by people.

A compact mass of hair that forms in the alimentary canal (especially in the stomach of animals as a result of licking fur), notably of cats: A trichobezoar is a concretion within the stomach or intestines formed of hairs, also known as a "hairball" or "hair ball".

A bezoar is a ball of swallowed foreign material (usually hair or fiber) that collects in the stomach and fails to pass through the intestines.

Chewing on or eating hair or fuzzy materials (or indigestible materials such as plastic bags) can lead to the formation of a bezoar. The incidence is very low and the risk is greater among mentally retarded or emotionally disturbed children. Generally bezoars are seen in females (approximately 90%) aged 10 to 19.

The bezoar may need to be surgically removed (especially trichobezoars which tend to be large). Sometimes small bezoars can be removed through a scope placed through the mouth and into the stomach (similar to an EGD procedure). Then, follow the prevention measures described.

A ball or concretion in the stomach or intestine, made of hair and fibers of vegetable matter and food detritus: The solid hard mass, or trichophytobezoar, is normally found in the stomachs of ruminant animals, or even sometimes in the stomachs of people.

An individual invertebrate animal that reproduces non-sexually by budding or splitting, especially one that lives in a colony in which each member is joined to others by living material, for example a coral: When visiting Australia, Kitty arranged to visit the Great Coral Reef which she knew was comprised of millions of tritozooids.

The adult or feeding stage in a member of the Sporozoa: A trophozoite is a parasitic spore-forming protozoa in the vegetative state, as contrasted with the reproductive stage of development.