dentary

American  

[den-tuh-ree] / ˈdɛn tə ri /

noun

Zoology.

plural

dentaries

1. one of a pair of membrane bones that in lower vertebrates form the distal part of the lower jaws and in mammals comprise the mandible.

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Etymology

Origin of dentary

1820–30; < Latin dentārius of the teeth, equivalent to dent- (stem of dēns ) tooth + -ārius -ary

Example Sentences

The lower jaw of mammals consists of only one bone, the dentary.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2015

In mammals, the dentary bone joins the skull at the squamosal bone, while in other vertebrates, the quadrate bone of the jaw joins with the articular bone of the skull.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2015

Such an insertion leaves unexplained the great dorsal production of the dentary, surangular and coronoid.

From The Adductor Muscles of the Jaw In Some Primitive Reptiles by Fox, Richard C.

From S. merriami of southeastern Wyoming, it differs in having a shorter, much shallower dentary, a shorter molar row, and a lower coronoid.

From Pleistocene Soricidae from San Josecito Cave, Nuevo Leon, Mexico by Findley, James S.

In the surangular part, immediately posterior to the end of the dentary, is the large surangular foramen.

From A Revision of Snakes of the Genus Conophis (Family Colubridae, from Middle America) by Wellman, John