exopodite

Also ex·o·pod

[ek-sop-uh-dahyt]

noun

Zoology.

1. the outer or lateral branch of a two-branched crustacean leg or appendage.

Other Word Forms

• exopoditic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of exopodite¹

First recorded in 1865–70; exo- + -pod + -ite ¹

Example Sentences

The standard trilobite limb is segmented into three distinct portions — a walking leg, or endopodite, and a gill structure, the exopodite, are connected to the body by a spiny food-processing section, the protopodite.

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The jaws have the gnathobasic endites developed at the expense of the rest of the limb, the endopodite and exopodite persisting only as sensory “palps” or disappearing altogether.

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General Morphology of Appendages.—Amid the great variety of forms assumed by the appendages of the Crustacea, it is possible to trace, more or less plainly, the modifications of a fundamental type consisting of a peduncle, the protopodite, bearing two branches, the endopodite and exopodite.

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Thus, in the thoracic limbs of the Malacostraca, the endopodite generally forms a walking-leg while the exopodite becomes a swimming-branch or may disappear altogether.

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The two distal endites are regarded as corresponding to the endopodite and exopodite of the higher Crustacea, the axis or corm of the Phyllopod limb representing the protopodite.

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