| 释义 |
ossicle|ˈɒsɪk(ə)l|
[ad. L. ossiculum, dim. of os, ossi- bone.]
1. A small bone; a small piece of bony substance.
Applied in anatomy to the bones of the middle ear in the tympanic cavity (auditory ossicles, o. of audition); also to those of the carpus and tarsus (carpal ossicle and tarsal ossicles), and to the numerous minute bones which strengthen the sclerotic coat of the eye in birds and some reptiles.
1578Banister Hist. Man i. 25 As touchyng the Ossicle, or little bone conteined within the hart. 1599A. M. tr. Gabelhouer's Bk. Physicke 18/2 Take out..of each foote the middlemost ossicle, or Clawe. 1689Moyle Sea Chyrurg. ii. iv. 37 When..I had laid it open, and taken out the splintred ossicles. 1709Blair in Phil. Trans. XXVII. 125 The Ossicles, viz. the Malleolus..Incus..Stapes..are of a proportional bigness. 1835–6Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 308/2 The..tympanic ossicle is moved by one muscle. 1877Coues & Allen N. Amer. Rod. 582 There are eight true tarsal bones, besides a supplementary ossicle.
2. A small plate, joint, etc. of chitinous or calcareous substance in the animal framework.
a. One of the plates or skeletal elements of a starfish or other echinoderm, as the ambulacral ossicle and adambulacral ossicles, the ossicles that support the spines, etc.
b. One of the joints of the stem or branches of a crinoid or encrinite.
c. One of the small hard parts of the gastric skeleton of crustacea, as the cardiac ossicle or plate, pterocardiac o., etc.
1852E. Forbes Echinodermata of Brit. Tertiaries 2 Vent..surrounded by a membrane covered more or less with irregular ossicles. 1857Mayne Expos. Lex. 839/1 Having the..nature..of ossicles, as the articulated pieces of which are composed the columns of animals pertaining to the Crinoides. 1892J. A. Thomson Outl. Zool. 204 [In starfishes] the rafter-like plates are called ambulacral ossicles. Ibid., The dorsal surface bears a network of little ossicles, and many of these bear spines. Ibid. 238 (Crustacea) The [cardiac] mill is very complex;..there are supporting ‘ossicles’ on the walls with external muscles attached to them. |