Definitions

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

  • adjective Situated behind the socket of the eye.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In anatomy and zoology: Situated on the hinder part of the bony brim of the orbit of the eye.
  • Bounding the orbit behind, as a separate bone of sundry reptiles. See the noun.
  • Lying backward (caudad) of the orbit of the eye, on the surface of the body; postocular: as, the postorbital part of the head.
  • In entomology, lying behind the compound eyes of an insect.
  • noun In herpetology, a separate bone which in some reptiles forms a posterior part of the orbit of the eye.

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

  • adjective (Anat. & Zoöl.) Situated behind the orbit.

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

  • adjective Behind the orbit of the eye.
  • noun A postorbital bone or scale.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The most obvious difference is the "postorbital processes" of the groundhog skull that are missing in the beaver skull and which are present in mine.

    A groundhog died in the woods and I found its skull AYDIN 2009

  • The most obvious difference is the "postorbital processes" of the groundhog skull that are missing in the beaver skull and which are present in mine.

    Archive 2009-08-01 AYDIN 2009

  • Based on the apparently archaic nature of its postorbital bar, Buffetaut (1983) speculated that this animal might be a late-surviving relict form from the Cretaceous.

    The small, recently extinct, island-dwelling crocodilians of the south Pacific Darren Naish 2006

  • In combination with forward directed postorbital horns and massive fan-shaped frill, cranial epi-ossifications may have enhanced visual display and species communication in Triceratops.

    Triceratops cranial epi-ossifications ReBecca Foster 2008

  • In combination with forward directed postorbital horns and massive fan-shaped frill, cranial epi-ossifications may have enhanced visual display and species communication in Triceratops.

    Archive 2008-04-01 ReBecca Foster 2008

  • Based on the apparently archaic nature of its postorbital bar, Buffetaut (1983) speculated that this animal might be a late-surviving relict form from the Cretaceous.

    Archive 2006-09-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • A complete postorbital bar is seen elsewhere in Mesozoic birds: confuciusornithids and the enantiornithine

    ScienceBlogs Channel : Life Science Darren Naish none@example.com 2010

  • Both the parapithecids and extinct and extant platyrrhines show extensive postorbital closure, which is not found in primates from North America (Fleagle and Kay, 1997).

    1. MajorityRights.com (main blog) 2010

  • Gong et al. (2004) identified prefrontals and a robust postorbital, for example, but the excellent photos they provided show that the 'prefrontals' may just be parts of the nasals

    ScienceBlogs Channel : Life Science Darren Naish none@example.com 2010

  • The smallest epiparietals, episquamosals and postorbital horns reveal the youngest histological tissues.

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles 2009

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