Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of a group of chiefly extinct reptiles that first emerged in the early Permian Period and are characterized by a skull with no openings in the temporal region. Modern turtles and tortoises may be surviving members of this group, or they may be descendants of diapsids that lost their skull openings.

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

  • noun biology Any amniote whose skull does not have openings near the temples.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun primitive reptile having no opening in the temporal region of the skull; all extinct except turtles

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin Anapsida, former subclass name : an- + Greek hapsis, hapsid-, arch (in reference to their lack of temporal openings); see apsis.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ἀν- (an-, "not") + ἁψίς (hapsis, "circle")

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