postcranial

adjective

post·​cra·​ni·​al ˌpōst-ˈkrā-nē-əl How to pronounce postcranial (audio)
: of or relating to the part of the body caudal to the head
postcranial skeleton
postcranially adverb

Examples of postcranial in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The hope is that more complete postcranial bones dating back even further in time, closer to the hypothetical emergence of H. erectus on the island, will turn up to paint a more detailed picture of how the hobbit came to be. Jeanna Bryner, Scientific American, 7 Aug. 2024 None of the early species contained these traces, indicating that postcranial skeletal pneumaticity hadn’t yet evolved. Jeanne Timmons, Ars Technica, 26 July 2023 Numerous other cranial and postcranial features in the Krapina Neandertals overlap with early modern humans, too. David W. Frayer, Scientific American, 1 Feb. 2022 First named in 1995, this species was known only from teeth, jaws and some postcranial bones from the sites of Allia Bay and Kanapoi in northern Kenya that dated to between about 4.2 and 3.9 million years ago. Briana Pobiner, Smithsonian, 13 Dec. 2019 A novel form of postcranial skeletal pneumaticity in a sauropod dinosaur: implications for the paleobiology of Rebbachisauridae. Brian Switek, Scientific American Blog Network, 15 May 2017 Meachen and Samuels looked to the postcranial skeletons of coyotes and grey wolves from the late Pleistocene to the modern era to track how the canids changed. Brian Switek, WIRED, 27 Sep. 2012

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'postcranial.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1879, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of postcranial was in 1879

Dictionary Entries Near postcranial

Cite this Entry

“Postcranial.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/postcranial. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.

Medical Definition

postcranial

adjective
post·​cra·​ni·​al -ˈkrā-nē-əl How to pronounce postcranial (audio)
: of or relating to the part of the body caudal to the head
a postcranial skeleton
postcranially adverb
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