synapsid
Americannoun
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Any of various amniotes with one temporal opening on each side of the skull. Synapsids emerged in the late Permian Period and were characterized by carrying their limbs under their body and developing front teeth that were different from their back teeth. One group of synapsids, the therapsids, gave rise to the mammals.
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"The reorganisation of synapsid jaws through this time has long been known as a big step towards the evolution of mammals," added Dr Armin Elsler, a collaborator on the study.
From Science Daily • Feb. 22, 2024
This finding provides important context for a key step in synapsid evolution.
From Science Daily • Feb. 22, 2024
Julius and I endeavored to surprise and delight readers with our interpretation of how this giant synapsid might have looked walking through Late Triassic–era Poland.
From Science Magazine • Jan. 10, 2020
An early synapsid with extensive soft tissue preservation.
From Scientific American • Jul. 23, 2017
In the course of synapsid evolution leading to mammals, the temporal presumably became the main muscle mass acting in adduction of the lower jaw.
From The Adductor Muscles of the Jaw In Some Primitive Reptiles by Fox, Richard C.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
