opisthocoelous

English

Etymology

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

Adjective

opisthocoelous (not comparable)

1. 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

• opisthocoelian

References

• “opisthocoelous”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.