Definition of chondrocranium in English:
chondrocranium
nounˌkɒndrə(ʊ)ˈkreɪnɪəmˌkändrōˈkrānēəm
Embryology Zoology The primary skull of vertebrates, composed of cartilage, which in humans and most other vertebrates is replaced by bone during development.
Example sentencesExamples
- The skulls of Devonian lungfish have a tessera of small superficial bones, fused to an ossified chondrocranium.
- As with all crocodyliforms, the chondrocranium is invested with a series of internal recesses that presumably communicated with the pharynx in life.
- The taenia tecti medialis, a bar of cartilage on the dorsomedial surface of the chondrocranium that bisects the parietal portion of the frontoparietal fontanelle, evolved in the common ancestor to neobatrachians.
- The epaxial muscles insert on the posterior aspect of the chondrocranium, which later ossifies into the exoccipitals and supraoccipital of the skull.
- In bony vertebrates, endochondral bones form from centers of ossification in the chondrocranium, although much of the braincase often remains cartilage.