A taxonomic grouping or suprafamilial category in zoological classification, related to horsehair worms and their relatives.
From Gordius (genus of horsehair worms) plus the Latin suffix '-acea' used in taxonomy to denote a grouping of related organisms at a particular hierarchical level.
Horsehair worms were so weird and mysterious that taxonomists kept reorganizing their classifications—'Gordiacea' is just one of several names scientists have tried for these parasitic oddities.
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