Paleontology Glossary

adjective describing something that is related to or resembling bone; skinny or gaunt in appearance

• The doctor noted that the patient had a bony structure, indicating a low body fat percentage.
• She's always been self-conscious about her bony arms, but I think they look great.
• That skateboarder has some seriously bony legs, dude.
• The old tree had bony branches reaching out in all directions, like gnarled fingers.

noun an animal lacking a backbone or internal skeleton, such as an insect, worm, or mollusk

• The study of invertebrates is a vast field within biology.
• I think invertebrates are so cool because they don't have a backbone.
• Some people are scared of bugs, but I find invertebrates fascinating.
• Dealing with difficult situations can make you feel like an invertebrate sometimes.

adjective of or relating to the skeleton

• The skeletal structure of the building was carefully designed by the architect.
• I can see the skeletal outline of the tree against the sky.
• She's so skinny, she looks like a skeletal model.
• The skeletal remains of the old factory serve as a reminder of the town's industrial past.

noun the internal framework of bones in the body

verb to remove the flesh or bones from a body

adjective relating to or resembling a skeleton

• The forensic team carefully examined the skeleton found at the crime scene.
• I heard that the old house down the street has a skeleton in the closet.
• That movie was so scary, it made my skeleton shake!
• The skeleton of the plan was solid, but the details needed work.

noun the evolutionary history of a species or group of related species

• The study of phylogeny helps us understand the evolutionary relationships between different species.
• Learning about phylogeny can show us how different animals are related to each other.
• Figuring out the family tree of animals is what phylogeny is all about.
• Exploring phylogeny is like unraveling the branches of a vast evolutionary tree.

adverb in a direction away from the axis or central part

• The anatomy of the starfish is typically described as having arms radiating abactinally from a central disk.
• The starfish's arms spread out abactinally from its body.
• The starfish looks like it's throwing up gang signs with its arms abactinally spread out.
• Her ideas were diverging abactinally from the group consensus.

noun a cup-shaped socket in the pelvis that forms the hip joint

• The acetabulum is a concave surface of the pelvis that forms the socket of the hip joint.
• I had to undergo surgery to repair a fracture in my acetabulum.
• My hip hurts so bad, I think I might have messed up my acetabulum.
• She felt like her heart was shattered into pieces, like an acetabulum broken into fragments.