Spicules are any of various small needle-like anatomical structures occurring in organisms
Spicule may also refer to:
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Spicule (sponge)
Spicules are structural elements found in most sponges. The meshing of many spicules serves as the sponge's skeleton and thus it provides structural support and potentially defense against predators.
Sponge spicules are made of calcium carb ...
, small skeletal elements of sea sponges
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Spicule (nematode)
In nematodes, spicules, also known as copulatory spicules, are needle-like mating structures found only in males.
Male nematodes may have one or two spicules which serve to open the vulva of females and facilitate the transmission of sperm, alth ...
, reproductive structures found in male nematodes (roundworms)
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Spicule (solar physics)
In solar physics, a spicule, also known as a fibril or mottle, is a dynamic jet of plasma in the Sun's chromosphere about 300 km in diameter.Quantifying Spicules, Tiago M. D. Pereira, Bart De Pontieu, and Mats Carlsson, ''The Astrophysical ...
, jets of solar material from the Sun
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Spicule (glass manufacture), glass flakes formed in the production of glass vials.
See also
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Ossicle
The ossicles (also called auditory ossicles) are three bones in either middle ear that are among the smallest bones in the human body. They serve to transmit sounds from the air to the fluid-filled labyrinth (cochlea). The absence of the auditory ...
, any various small bones
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Process (anatomy)
In anatomy, a process ( la, processus) is a projection or outgrowth of tissue from a larger body. For instance, in a vertebra, a process may serve for muscle attachment and leverage (as in the case of the transverse and spinous processes), or to ...
, any outgrowths of tissue
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Sclerite
A sclerite (Greek , ', meaning "hard") is a hardened body part. In various branches of biology the term is applied to various structures, but not as a rule to vertebrate anatomical features such as bones and teeth. Instead it refers most commonly ...
, hardened body parts of invertebrates
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Spikelet
A spikelet, in botany, describes the typical arrangement of the flowers of grasses, sedges and some other Monocots.
Each spikelet has one or more florets. The spikelets are further grouped into panicles or spikes. The part of the spikelet that ...
, the inflorescence of grasses
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Stylet (anatomy)
A stylet is a hard, sharp, anatomical structure found in some invertebrates.
For example, the word ''stylet'' or stomatostyle is used for the primitive piercing mouthparts of some nematodes and some nemerteans. In these groups the stylet is a h ...
, a piercing structure
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Tubercle
In anatomy, a tubercle (literally 'small tuber', Latin for 'lump') is any round nodule, small eminence, or warty outgrowth found on external or internal organs of a plant or an animal.
In plants
A tubercle is generally a wart-like projection ...
, wart-shaped outgrowths of body tissue
{{Disambiguation