a fused set of bones at the posterior end of a bird’s vertebral column
pygostyle in American English
(ˈpaiɡəˌstail)
noun
Ornithology
the bone at the posterior end of the spinal column in birds, formed by the fusion of several caudal vertebrae
Derived forms
pygostyled
adjective
pygostylous
adjective
Word origin
[1870–75; ‹ Gk pȳgo- (comb. form repr. pȳge᷄ rump) + stŷlos pillar]This word is first recorded in the period 1870–75. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: Victorian, asymmetric, giveaway, linkage, upgrade
Examples of 'pygostyle' in a sentence
pygostyle
Foraging style groups differ significantly in pygostyle shape, and pygostyle shape predicts foraging style with less than 4% misclassification error.
Ryan N Felice, Patrick M O'Connor 2014, 'Ecology and caudal skeletal morphology in birds: the convergent evolution of pygostyleshape in underwater foraging taxa.', PLoS ONEhttp://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3935938?pdf=render. Retrieved from PLOS CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
This study explores whether differences in flight behavior are also associated with variation in caudal vertebra and pygostyle morphology.
Ryan N Felice, Patrick M O'Connor 2014, 'Ecology and caudal skeletal morphology in birds: the convergent evolution of pygostyleshape in underwater foraging taxa.', PLoS ONEhttp://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3935938?pdf=render. Retrieved from PLOS CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)