Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In Crustacea, a median development, often bifid, of the ventral part of a somite immediately behind the mouth.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) A median elevation behind the mouth in the arthropods.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun zoology A
median elevation behind themouth in thearthropods .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Ancient Greek μετά (meta, "behind") + στόμα (stoma, "mouth").
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Examples
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This probably occurred in the Platode ancestors of most (or all?) of the Coelomaria; in these the permanent mouth (metastoma) lies at the fore end (oral pole), whereas the primitive mouth (prostoma) lay at the hind end of the bilateral body.
The Evolution of Man — Volume 2 Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel 1876
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(metagaster) and mouth (metastoma) has been much criticised; but it is as much justified as the distinction between the primitive kidneys and the permanent kidneys.
The Evolution of Man — Volume 1 Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel 1876
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