agnathan
English edit
Etymology edit
From Agnatha, from Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-, “without”) + γνάθος (gnáthos, “jaw”).
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
agnathan (not comparable)
- (zoology) Belonging or pertaining to the superclass Agnatha, the jawless vertebrates.
- 2005, Tim Haines, Paul Chambers, The Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life, BBC Books, page 20:
- Haikouichthys is one of three species of jawless (or agnathan) fish to be found in the Early Cambrian period.
Noun edit
agnathan (plural agnathans)
- (zoology) A member of the superclass Agnatha of jawless vertebrates.
- 1956, D. R. Newth, “On the Neural Crest of the Lamprey Embryo”, in Journal of Embryology and Experimental Morphology, volume 4, page 358:
- Thus should the cranial neural crest in cyclostomes prove to be non-skeletogenous this might be a reflection either of its own primitiveness or of the different evolutionary origins and morphological status of the visceral skeleton in agnathans and gnathostomes.
- 1992, Peter J. Hanley et al., “Hagfish Humoral Defense Protein Exhibits Structural and Functional Homology with Mammalian Complement Components”, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, volume 89, page 7910:
- The hagfish is an agnathan, a modern representative of the earliest evolved group of vertebrates, the ostracoderms or jawless fishes, which arose prior to the ancient placoderms (3).