postorbitaladj.n.
/ˌpəʊstˈɔːbᵻtl/, U.S. /ˌpoʊstˈɔrbəd(ə)l/ Anatomy and Zoology.
A. adj.
Situated behind or on the hinder part of the orbit of the eye; spec. designating a process of the frontal bone, which forms a separate bone in some reptiles.
ΚΠ
1835–6 Todd's Cycl. Anat. & Physiol. I. 274/2 The post-orbital processes are most developed in the Parrots.
1882 W. K. Parker in Trans. Linn. Soc. 2 iii. 167 Besides this antorbital rudiment, there is a large postorbital cartilage.
1930 H. G. Newth Marshall & Hurst's Junior Course Pract. Zool. (ed. 11) xii. 233 The foramen for the glosso-pharyngeal nerve is at the hinder end of the floor of the post-orbital groove.
1958 W. E. Swinton Fossil Amphibians & Reptiles (ed. 2) iii. 11 (caption) The upper surface shows the gradual pulling back of the orbits, postorbital region, and the relative position in the pineal foramen.
1997 Nature 27 Feb. 779/1 The region under the eye is almost completely surrounded by the preorbital and postorbital processes.
B. n.
A postorbital bone, process, scale, etc. Cf. postfrontal n., postocular n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > reptiles > [noun] > parts of > bones of
tarsus1676
mastoid1840
mastoid bone1841
postorbital1852
sclerotal1854
quadrate bone1858
quadrate1863
transpalatine1891
osteoderm1898
suprascapula2004
1852 S. F. Baird & C. Girard in H. Stansbury Explor. & Surv. Valley Great Salt Lake (U.S. Army Corps Topogr. Engineers) 350 There is a small loral plate and several postorbitals.
1866 R. Owen On Anat. Vertebr. I. 103 The bones of the dermoskeleton are—The Supratemporals..The Postorbitals..The Superorbitals [etc.].
1974 D. Webster & M. Webster Compar. Vertebr. Morphol. iv. 72 Those posterior dermal bones which remained [in early amphibians]—the supratemporals, postorbitals, tabulars, postparietals—were greatly shortened so that the orbit tended to lie closer to the back of the skull.
1995 P. J. Hayward et al. in P. J. Hayward & J. S. Ryland Handbk. Marine Fauna N.W. Europe viii. 450/2 Pisa tetraodon (Pennant). Four-horned spider crab... Carapace with three large spines each side between post-orbitals and posterior-laterals.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2006; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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adj.n.1835