diapsid
(of reptiles) having two openings in the skull behind each eye, characteristic of the subclasses Lepidosauria and Archosauria, including all living reptiles except turtles.
a diapsid reptile.
Origin of diapsid
1- Compare anapsid.
Words Nearby diapsid
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use diapsid in a sentence
Their remains fall into two great groups, which are known as the diapsid and the Synapsid reptiles.
The Story of Evolution | Joseph McCabe
Scientific definitions for diapsid
[ dī-ăp′sĭd ]
Any of various amniotes having a skull with two pairs of temporal openings. Diapsids evolved in the Permian Period and grew longer and better-developed hindlimbs than forelimbs (unlike therapsids). Diapsids evolved into the archosaurs (including the dinosaurs and their descendants the birds) and all modern reptiles except, in some classifications, the turtles. Compare anapsid synapsid therapsid.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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