any of the large stiff feathers of a bird's tail, used in controlling the direction of flight
Derived forms
rectricial (rɛkˈtrɪʃəl)
adjective
Word origin
C17: from Late Latin, feminine of rector governor, rector
Examples of 'rectrices' in a sentence
rectrices
I tested the sound production capabilities of the rectrices in a wind tunnel.
Christopher James CLARK 2011, 'Wing, tail, and vocal contributions to the complex acoustic signals of courting Calliopehummingbirds', Current Zoologyhttp://www.currentzoology.org/paperdetail.asp?id=11832. Retrieved from DOAJ CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
They were one of the first feathered dinosaur groups discovered, and possessed avian-like pennaceous remiges and rectrices.
Rui Qiu, Xiaolin Wang, Qiang Wang, Ning Li, Jialiang Zhang, Yiyun Ma 2019, 'A new caudipterid from the Lower Cretaceous of China with information on the evolutionof the manus of Oviraptorosauria', Scientific Reportshttp://link.springer.com/article/10.1038/s41598-019-42547-6. Retrieved from DOAJ CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)