A marine animal that is part of a phylum containing worm-like creatures with a partial notochord, representing an evolutionary link between simpler and more complex animals.
From Greek 'hemi-' meaning half and 'chorda' meaning string or cord, referring to the notochord-like structure. The term was coined in the late 1800s to classify marine organisms discovered to have incomplete backbones.
Hemichordates are like nature's evolutionary 'missing links'—they have a rod that looks like it's trying to be a backbone but isn't quite there, helping scientists understand how fish and other vertebrates evolved from simple sea creatures.
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