a. Zool. [ad. mod.L. caudāl-is, f. cauda tail.] Of or belonging to the tail; situated in or near the tail; of the nature of a tail.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 30. Three drops of the bloud out of the caudale veine of a boor Cat.
1769. Pennant, Zool., III. 126. It wanted the pectoral, ventral, and caudal fins.
184171. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd., 445. Its body is round, having as yet no appearance of caudal appendages.
1849. Murchison, Siluria, xii. 303. The superior and inferior spines of the caudal vertebræ.
1871. Darwin, Desc. Man, I. viii. 269. The male widow-bird, remarkable for his caudal plumes, certainly seems to be a polygamist.
1872. H. A. Nicholson, Palæont., 312. The caudal fin or tail.
b. quasi-sb. (= caudal fin, vertebra, etc.)
1834. McMurtrie, Cuviers Anim. Kingd., 202. The ventrals and caudal are wanting.
1854. Owen, in Circ. Sc. (1865), II. 63/1. It continues marking off the anterior third of the centrum in all the other caudals.