noun
definition
A hanging, usually of rich stuff, at the back of a throne, altar, etc.
adjective
definition
With respect to, or concerning the side in which the backbone is located, or the analogous side of an invertebrate.
definition
(of a knife) Having only one sharp side.
definition
Relating to the top surface of the foot or hand.
definition
(of a sound) Produced using the dorsum of the tongue.
definition
Relating to the surface naturally inferior, as of a leaf.
definition
Relating to the surface naturally superior, as of a creeping hepatic moss.
Examples of dorsal in a Sentence
The lungs are small and occupy only the dorsal portion of the thoracic cavity.
The line of the genital openings is usually dorsal to the lateral nerve.
A ventral vessel occurs on the anterior side of the metasome and forms a loop extending down the entire length of the stalk, while a " heart " projects into the cavity of the pericardium, probably connected on the ventral side of the notochord with the ventral vessel, and on its dorsal side with the dorsal vessel.
Vascular system complicated without regular connexion between dorsal and ventral vessels, except in anterior segments.
There are two chitinous jaws in the buccal cavity, a dorsal and a ventral, which are of specially complicated structure in Cirrodrilus.
The median lacuna no longer exists, but is represented by a dorsal and ventral sinus.
The former lodges the dorsal, the latter the ventral, bloodvessel.
The three pairs of pigmented spots show the position of the eyes on the dorsal surface.
The pallial cavity, with its organs, is by this torsion moved up the right side of the larva to the dorsal surface, and thus the left organs become right and vice versa.
E, The trochosphere passing to the veliger stage, dorsal view showing the formation of the primitive shell-sac.
These facts afford strong support to the hypothesis that the weight of the shell is the original cause of the torsion of the dorsal visceral mass in Gastropods.
As in some Pectinibranchia, the free margin of the mantle-skirt is frequently reflected over the shell when a shell exists; and, as in some Pectinibranchia, broad lateral outgrowths of the foot (parapodia) are often developed which may be thrown over the shell or naked dorsal surface of the body.
Laterally the foot gives rise to a pair of mobile fleshy lobes, the parapodia (ep), which can be thrown up so as to cover in the dorsal surface of the animal.
The dorsal surface of the kidney extends to the left beyond the shell-chamber beneath the skin in the space between the shell-chamber and the left parapodium.
Thus the base of the gill passes in a slanting direction across the right-hand side of the kidney, the posterior end being dorsal to the apex of the gland, and the anterior end ventral to the right-hand corner.
The vascular system is not extensive, the arteries soon ending in the well-marked spongy tissue which builds up the muscular foot, parapodia, and dorsal body-wall.
Spengel's observation of the osphradium and its nervesupply in these forms; the nerve to that organ, which is placed somewhat anteriorly - on the dorsal surface - being given off from the hinder part (visceral) of the right compound ganglion - the fellow to that marked A in fig.
The Eolid-like Nudibranchs, amongst other specialities of structure, possess (in some cases at any rate) apertures at the apices of the " cerata " or dorsal papillae, which lead from the exterior into the hepatic caeca.
Cephalic shield continuous with dorsal integument; no shell; ctenidium projecting from mantle cavity.
Dorsal respiratory appendages frequently present.
Visceral commissure reduced; nervous system concentrated on dorsal side of oesophagus.
No anterior tentacles, and no dorsal appendages; body laterally compressed, transparent; pelagic. Phyllirhoe.
Head broad, surrounded by a funnel-shaped velum or hood; no radula; dorsal appendages foliaceous.
Anterior tentacles forming a scalloped frontal veil; dorsal appendages and tentacles similarly ramified.
Body flattened, the two dorsal borders prominent and foliaceous.
External to the branchia are seen ten club-like processes of the dorsal wall, these are the " cerata " which are characteristically developed in another sub-order of Opisthobranchs.
Dorsal papillae spindle-shaped or clubshaped.
Body elongated; visceral mass marked off from foot posteriorly; dorsal appendages absent, or reduced to a single pair; spicules in the integument.
Bases of the rhinophores surrounded by a sheath; dorsal papillae tuberculated and club-shaped, in a single row on either side of the dorsum; no cnidosacs.
Dorsal papillae with a membranous expansion; male and female apertures at some distance from each other; pelagic. Fiona.
Liver ramifies in integuments and extends into dorsal papillae, but there are no cnidosacs.
Foot narrow; dorsal papillae linear or fusiform, in several - series.
Foot broad; dorsal papillae flattened and foliaceous.
Karl Semper has shown that these slugs have, in addition to the usual pair of cephalic eyes, a number of eyes developed upon the dorsal integument.
These dorsal eyes are very perfect in elaboration, possessing lens, retinal nerve-end cells, retinal pigment and optic nerve.
Semper, pursued as food by the leaping fish Periophthalmus, and the dorsal eyes are of especial value to them in aiding them to escape from this enemy.
In addition to the wings there are smaller dorsal outgrowths of the thorax in many insects.
In the abdominal exoskeleton the segmental structure is very clearly marked, a series of sclerites - dorsal terga and abdominal sterna - being connected by pale, feebly chitinized cuticle, so that considerable freedom of movement between the segments is possible.
The dorsal vessel is prolonged anteriorly into an aorta, through which the blood is propelled into the great After Miall and Denny, The Cockroach, Lovell body-cavity or haemoReeve & Co.
Wheeler, the amnion is ruptured and turned back from covering the germ band, enclosing the yolk dorsally and becoming finally absorbed, as the ectoderm of the germ band itself spreads to form the dorsal wall.
But the pupa hangs from the surface by means of paired respiratory trumpets on the prothorax, the dorsal thoracic surface, where the cuticle splits to allow the emergence of the fly, being thus directed towards the upper air.
There are two dorsal fins, the anterior near the head, composed of 11-14 feeble spines, the second near the tail with all the rays soft except the first, and behind the second dorsal five or six finlets.
The ventral is immediately below the second dorsal, and is also followed by finlets.
This is brought about by a double commissure, of which the ventral portion is considerably thicker than the dorsal, and which, together with the brain-lobes, constitutes a ring through which both proboscis and proboscidian sheath pass.
The brain-lobes are generally four in number, a ventral and a dorsal pair, respectively united together by the above-mentioned commissures, and moreover anteriorly interfusing with each other, right and left.
In most Heteronemertines it is found to be an elongated slit with corrugated borders; in the Metanemertines it is smaller and rounded; in Malacobdella and Akrostomum it, moreover, serves for the extrusion of the proboscis, which emerges by a separate dorsal opening just inside the mouth.
The median dorsal vessel, however, remains distinct, but instead of continuing its course beneath the proboscidian sheath it is first enclosed by the ventral musculature of this organ, and still farther forwards it even bulges out longitudinally into the cavity of the sheath.
The two external openings of the nephridia are situated sometimes more 2 towards the ventral, at other times more towards the dorsal side.
But should the "bell" swallow any of the ova, or even one of the younger embryos, these are passed back into the body cavity through the second and dorsal opening.
The head is rather short and rounded; the fore limbs or paddles are small and broad compared with those of most dolphins; and (as in the beluga) a dorsal fin, found in nearly all other members of the group, is wanting.