spination

English edit

spination (plural spinations)

(zoology) The distribution of spines on an organism.
- 1866, J. S. Bowerbank, A Monograph of the British Spongiadae, page 150:
  The internal defensive spicula are very numerous, and appear all to spring from the basal membrane, their diameter is nearly the same at the base, but they vary greatly in their length and also in the degree of their spinations; in some the spines are quite in an incipient state, while in others they are well and distinctly produced.
- 2000, Jeffrey Martin Leis, The Larvae of Indo-Pacific Coastal Fishes: An Identification Guide:
  They share few characters: 25 vertebrae; compact, triangular gut; inconspicuous gas bladder; and some head spination.