sarcomeren.

1891 E. A. Schäfer in Proc. Royal Soc. 49 281 The segment of a sarcostyle comprised between two transverse membranes may be termed ‘muscle-segment’ or ‘sarcomere’.

1897 Jrnl. Anat. & Physiol. 31 336 [Schäfer] regards the sarcostyle as divided at regular intervals by Krause's transverse membranes into ‘muscle segments’ or ‘sarcomeres’, which are only new names for Krause's ‘muscle caskets’.

1900 G. C. Bourne Introd. Compar. Anat. Anim. I. 96 The sarcostyle itself is made up of a number of segments, called sarcomeres, separated from one another by fine membranes.

1930 W. Bloom A. A. Maximow's Text-bk. Histol. viii. 205 In the invertebrates (arthropods)..sarcomeres as long as 17μ have been found. The length of the sarcomere and the physiologic peculiarities of the muscle have not..been correlated.

1970 T. S. Leeson & C. R. Leeson Histol. (ed. 2) ix. 162/2 It is customary to consider the muscle fibril as composed of structural units. Each unit extends between adjacent z lines and is termed a sarcomere.

1980 Crawford & James in R. Owen et al. Sci. Foundations Orthopaedics & Traumatol. x. 68/1 Changes in sarcomere length occur by movement of the thick myosin filaments along the thin actin filaments, their own length remaining unchanged.