anapsid

Meanings

1. 1nouncountablebiology

   A reptile whose skull has no openings behind the eye sockets, a feature once used to group early reptiles.

   Grammar: A countable noun: one anapsid, several anapsids.

   Patterns

   • an anapsid skull

   The fossil was identified as an anapsid because its skull had no extra openings.

   Early textbooks listed turtles as the only living anapsids.

   An anapsid and a diapsid differ in how many holes the skull has behind the eye.

2. 2adjectivebefore a nounbiology

   Describing a skull with no openings behind the eye socket, or an animal with such a skull.

   Grammar: Usually placed before a noun: an anapsid skull.

   Patterns

   • anapsid skull

   The anapsid skull is solid bone behind each eye.

   Scientists debated whether the anapsid condition was primitive or a later change.

   The museum displayed an anapsid specimen beside a diapsid one.

Word forms

Common combinations

anapsid skull

The anapsid skull has no temporal openings.

anapsid reptile

Paleontologists described a small anapsid reptile from the Permian.

anapsid condition

The anapsid condition was long thought to be the ancestral state.

anapsid and diapsid

The chart separates anapsid and diapsid reptiles.

Synonyms and how they differ

anapsid reptile

This simply spells out what the noun anapsid already means, in a less technical-sounding way.

Opposites

Word family

diapsid noun

a reptile with two openings behind the eye socket

synapsid noun

an animal with one opening, the group including mammals

anapsida noun

the traditional group name for anapsid reptiles

Commonly confused: anapsid or diapsid?

Practice

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