opisthocoelous

English edit

Etymology edit

From opistho- +‎ -coelous (“concave”).

Adjective edit

opisthocoelous (not comparable)

concave behind; applied especially to vertebrae in which the anterior end of the centrum is convex and the posterior concave
- 2001 June 1, Joshua B. Smith et al., “A Giant Sauropod Dinosaur from an Upper Cretaceous Mangrove Deposit in Egypt”, in Science‎^[1], volume 292, number 5522, →DOI, pages 1704–1706:
  Specimen 1912VIII64 was opisthocoelous, pleurocoelous, and caudally wider than tall, as in Epachthosaurus and Pellegrinisaurus (15), and may pertain to Paralititan.
- 1997 June 6, Jose L. Sanz et al., “A Nestling Bird from the Lower Cretaceous of Spain: Implications for Avian Skull and Neck Evolution”, in Science‎^[2], volume 276, number 5318, →DOI, pages 1543–1546:
  On the basis of the presence of slightly opisthocoelous vertebrae in the Enantiornithes (presumably referring to the anterior dorsals), Kurochkin (3 ) has claimed that the Enantiornithes could not have evolved heterocoelous vertebrae.
- 1870, Thomas Henry Huxley, Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews‎^[3]:
  The Mesozoic Lepidosteidae, again, have, at most, biconcave vertebrae, while the existing Lepidosteus has Salamandroid, opisthocoelous, vertebrae.

Synonyms edit

opisthocoelian

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “opisthocoelous”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)