protopodite

Also pro·to·pod

[proh-top-uh-dahyt]

noun

Zoology.

1. the basal portion of a two-branched crustacean leg or other appendage.

Other Word Forms

• protopoditic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of protopodite¹

First recorded in 1865–70; proto- + 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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Instead of having a spiny, triangular protopodite for processing food, they had a smooth, rounded structure attached to a short, flexible fingerlike endopodite that was just half the length of the creature’s other walking legs.

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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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As a rule the protopodite is composed of two segments, though one may be reduced or suppressed and occasionally three may be present.

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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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