pygaladj.n.
/ˈpʌɪɡl/, U.S. /ˈpaɪɡ(ə)l/ Zoology.
A. adj.
Of or relating to the rump or posterior part of an animal; spec. designating a posterior median bone or plate in the carapace of a turtle or tortoise.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > animal body > general parts > rump and tail > [adjective] > relating to the rump
postabdominal1834
pygal1838
1838 Penny Cycl. XI. 469/1 Cercocebus... Pygal callosities large.
1849 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 139 161 Around the border of the carapace are eleven pairs of marginal plates,..exclusive of the nuchal and pygal plates.
1870 Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc. 14 137 The marginals exhibit the characters of the genus, the eleventh..exhibiting a suture for union with [the] pygal bone.
1948 Ecol. Monogr. 18 168/1 The large male tried to mount the smaller one,..getting almost into position with his inguinal depression against the other one's pygal plate.
1977 New Yorker 9 May 100/3 One [porcupine] turns and presents to him a pygal bouquet of quills.
2004 J. R. Spotila & F. V. Paladino in G. W. Frankie et al. Biodiversity Conservation in Costa Rica xv. 195 The carapace [of the leatherback turtle]..tapers to a point in the rear called the pygal process.
B. n.
A posterior median bone or plate (or each of a pair or series) in the carapace of a turtle or tortoise. Also: (in some reptiles) each of a number of vertebrae posterior to the sacrum but distinct from those nearer the end of the tail.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > reptiles > order Chelonia (turtles and tortoises) > [noun] > turtles or sea-tortoises > parts of
calipash1674
calipee1689
hut1698
monsieur1751
pee1764
turtle-shell1828
hyosternal1835
xiphiplastron1871
xiphisternum1872
pygal1885
xiphiplastral1889
turtle-back1898
1885 Palæontologia Indica (Mem. Geol. Surv. India) 3 157 Pygals united; gulars usually double.
1895 R. Lydekker Royal Nat. Hist. V. 45 In front, the series is completed by a large nuchal plate,..while behind it terminates in one or two pygals.
1958 W. E. Swinton Fossil Amphibians & Reptiles (ed. 2) viii. 42 There is a..row of eight neural bones,..and at their hinder end is one and occasionally two pygals and suprapygals.
1967 Copeia No. 4. 709 Vertebrae in the immediate postsacral region are functionally more closely associated with the sacral and last few presacral vertebrae than with the remaining vertebrae of the tail. Holder (1960) has called them ‘pygals’ in geckos where..the anterior non-autotomic vertebrae are sharply distinct from the autotomic vertebrae.
1996 Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. No. 229. 1 There are 8 costals and 11 peripherals, but the number of neurals and the presence of a pygal and suprapygals are unknown.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1838