Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In ichthyology, the foremost one of three basal cartilages which the pterygium of a fish, as an elasmobranch, may present. See
pterygium .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Anat.) The anterior of three principal cartilages in the fins of some fishes.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun anatomy The
anterior of threeprincipal cartilages in thefins of somefishes .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Ancient Greek before + a fin.
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Examples
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The shaded part on the right is the section that persists in the five-fingered hand of the higher Vertebrates. (b the three basal pieces of the fin: mt metapterygium, rudiment of the humerus, ms mesopterygium, p propterygium.) (From Gegenbaur.))
The Evolution of Man — Volume 2 Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel 1876
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