English

An illustration of the head of a human embryo, with basihyal labelled b.hy

Noun

basihyal ‎(plural basihyals)

1. (anatomy, fish anatomy, vertebrate anatomy) Either of two small bones that form the body of the inverted hyoid arch.
   • 1992, M. M. Coburn, T. M. Cavender, Phylogenetics of North American Cyprinidae, Richard L. Mayden (editor), Systematics, Historical Ecology, and North American Freshwater Fishes, page 362,

     Coburn (1982) used a posterior extension of the basihyal to group many taxa in Notropis (s. l.) (93).

   • 1999, Nicole Le Douarin, Chaya Kalcheim, The Neural Crest, page 111,

     The hyoid cartilage is formed of a series of skeletal elements: entoglossum (or paraglossals), basihyal (basihyoid), basibranchial (or urohyal), ceratobranchial, and epibranchial (Fig. 3.21), the most anterior of which (entoglossum and basihyal) constitute the tongue skeleton.

   • 2015, Dionisios Yoloutas, Sébastien Couette, Lauren B. Halenar, 6: Morphology of Howler Monkeys: A Review and Quantitative Analyses, Martín M. Kowalewski, Paul A. Garber, Liliana Cortes-Ortiz, Bernardo Urbani, Dionisios Youlatos (editors), Howler Monkeys: Adaptive Radiation, Systematics, and Morphology, page 144,

     In most mammals, the hyoid apparatus lies at or above the entrance to the larynx and consists of two basic parts: inferiorly, the unpaired basihyal and paired thyrohyal “horns” which connect the basihyal to the thyroid cartilage and superiorly, the paired suspensory stylohyoid chains which are made up of four cartilaginous or ossified links, the ceratohyal, epihyal, stylohyal, and tympanohyal, that connect the basihyal to the temporal bone (e.g., Howes 1896; Negus 1949).

Related terms

• basihyoid
• epihyal
• glossohyal
• stylohyal
• thyrohyal
• tympanohyal
• urohyal