English

Adjective

opisthocoelous ‎(not comparable)

1. concave behind; applied especially to vertebrae in which the anterior end of the centrum is convex and the posterior concave
   • 2001 June 1, Joshua B. Smith et al., “A Giant Sauropod Dinosaur from an Upper Cretaceous Mangrove Deposit in Egypt”, in Science, volume 292, number 5522, DOI:10.1126/science.1060561, pages 1704-1706:

     Specimen 1912VIII64 was opisthocoelous, pleurocoelous, and caudally wider than tall, as in Epachthosaurus and Pellegrinisaurus (15), and may pertain to Paralititan.

   • 1997 June 6, Jose L. Sanz et al., “A Nestling Bird from the Lower Cretaceous of Spain: Implications for Avian Skull and Neck Evolution”, in Science, volume 276, number 5318, DOI:10.1126/science.276.5318.1543, pages 1543-1546:

     On the basis of the presence of slightly opisthocoelous vertebrae in the Enantiornithes (presumably referring to the anterior dorsals), Kurochkin (3 ) has claimed that the Enantiornithes could not have evolved heterocoelous vertebrae.

   • 1870, Thomas Henry Huxley, Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews:

     The Mesozoic Lepidosteidae, again, have, at most, biconcave vertebrae, while the existing Lepidosteus has Salamandroid, opisthocoelous, vertebrae.

Synonyms

• opisthocoelian