epichordal

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

• adj. Upon or above the notochord; applied especially to a vertebral column which develops upon the dorsal side of the notochord, as distinguished from a perichordal column, which develops around it.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

• adj. Upon or above the notochord; -- applied esp. to a vertebral column which develops upon the dorsal side of the notochord, as distinguished from a perichordal column, which develops around it.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

• In anatomy, situated upon or about the intracranial part of the notochord: applied to certain segments of the brain: opposed to prechordal.
• Noting a type of vertebræ, found in some Batrachia, in which the cartilaginous elements from which the centra of the vertebræ are developed are suppressed on the ventral side of the notochord, as in Pipa, Bombinator, and Alytes.