Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having the “bound - palate” type of structure; exhibiting desmognathism; belonging or relating to the Desmognathæ: as, a desmognathous palate; a desmognathous bird.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Zoöl.) Having the maxillo-palatine bones united; -- applied to a group of carinate birds (Desmognathæ), including various wading and swimming birds, as the ducks and herons, and also raptorial and other kinds.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective zoology having the maxillopalatine bones united; applied to a group of carinate birds (Desmognathae), including various wading and swimming birds, such as ducks and herons, and also raptorial and other kinds

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

desmo- + -gnathous

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Examples

  • This is a modified version of the desmognathous condition and it presumably evolved to provide mechanical support for the bill: among so-called ‘higher landbirds’ it is present in birds that kill and consume active prey, as well as in forms that beat prey dead against a perch.

    Archive 2006-08-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • This is a modified version of the desmognathous condition and it presumably evolved to provide mechanical support for the bill: among so-called ‘higher landbirds’ it is present in birds that kill and consume active prey, as well as in forms that beat prey dead against a perch.

    Bucorvids: post-Cretaceous maniraptorans on the savannah Darren Naish 2006

  • We know this because of the arrangement of its deep plantar tendons, because its palate is desmognathous instead of ægithognathous, because -- but I think I will not proceed further with these reasons; if I do, this article will resemble a letter written by the conscientious undergraduate who used to copy into each of his epistles to his mother, a page of _A Complete

    Birds of the Indian Hills Douglas Dewar 1916

  • This isn’t the whole story behind the desmognathous palate incidentally, as it’s also present in waterfowl, ibises, spoonbills, pelicans and other groups (Huxley 1867).

    Bucorvids: post-Cretaceous maniraptorans on the savannah Darren Naish 2006

  • This isn’t the whole story behind the desmognathous palate incidentally, as it’s also present in waterfowl, ibises, spoonbills, pelicans and other groups (Huxley 1867).

    Archive 2006-08-01 Darren Naish 2006

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