A
triploblastic organism which has an internal, fluid-filled
body cavity which originated from the
mesoderm during
embryonic development. This cavity surrounds the
gut, may contain various other organs, and is called a
coelom. It differs from the
pseudocoels of the
pseudocoelomates because it is not derived from the
blastocoel. The term is used to classify
multicellular animals by developmental pattern.
From the BioTech Dictionary at http://biotech.icmb.utexas.edu/. For further information see the BioTech homenode.