sea squirt

noun

1. any tunicate, especially a sessile ascidian, so called from its habit of contracting its body and ejecting streams of water when disturbed.

noun

1. any minute primitive marine animal of the class Ascidiacea, most of which are sedentary, having a saclike body with openings through which water enters and leavesSee also ascidian

1. Any of various tunicates of the class Ascidiacea, having a transparent sac-shaped body with two siphons. One of the siphons is used to draw water (carrying oxygen and food particles) into the body, while the other expels it. Sea squirts are free-swimming as larvae but sessile as adults. Like other tunicates, sea squirts are chordates, but they have a notochord only in the larval stage.