pecten

American  

[pek-tuhn] / ˈpɛk tən /

noun

plural

pectens, pectines

1. Zoology, Anatomy.

   1. a comblike part or process.

   2. a pigmented vascular membrane with parallel folds suggesting the teeth of a comb, projecting into the vitreous humor of the eye in birds and reptiles.

2. any bivalve mollusk of the genus Pecten; scallop.

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pecten British  

/ ˈpɛktɪn /

noun

1. a comblike structure in the eye of birds and reptiles, consisting of a network of blood vessels projecting inwards from the retina, which it is thought to supply with oxygen

2. any other comblike part or organ

3. any scallop of the genus Pecten, which swim by expelling water from their shell valves in a series of snapping motions

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Etymology

Origin of pecten

1350–1400; Middle English < Latin pecten comb, rake, scallop, pubes, akin to pectere, Greek pékein to comb, card

Example Sentences

Quite different, therefore, are the evolutionary processes which lead, in man and in the Pecten, to the development of a like retina.

From Creative Evolution by Mitchell, Arthur

It is evidently of marine formation, as Sir William Hamilton, Professor Pilla, and others have detected sea-shells therein, of the genera Ostr�a, Cardium, Pecten and Pectunculus, Buccinum, etc.

From Volcanoes: Past and Present by Hull, Edward

Collected by M. Domeyko from the same locality, apparently near Arqueros: Terebratula aenigma and Terebratula ignaciana, in same block of limestone: Pecten Dufreynoyi.

From Geological Observations on South America by Darwin, Charles

Let us place side by side the eye of a vertebrate and that of a mollusc such as the common Pecten.

From Creative Evolution by Mitchell, Arthur

The principal divisions of the Selbornian stage with their characteristic zonal fossils are as follows:— Warminster Beds Pecten asper and Cardiaster fossarius.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 5 "Gassendi, Pierre" to "Geocentric" by Various