-fera Also -ifera.
Animal orders or phyla.
[Modern Latin, the neuter plural of ferre, to bear.]
Though the ending from the Latin source is -fera, examples all contain the linking vowel -i-: Foraminifera (Latin foramen, an opening or passage), an order of single-celled planktonic animals; Rotifera (Latin rota, wheel), a phylum of minute aquatic animals with a characteristic wheel-like ciliated organ used in swimming and feeding; and Loricifera (Latin lorica, breastplate), a minor phylum of minute marine invertebrates, resembling rotifers and living in gravel.
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