a. [f. Gr. ἀμφί on both sides + στύλ-ος pillar + -IC.] Having pillars or piers on both sides: applied to the skulls of certain sharks, having piers supporting both upper and lower mandibular arches.
1876. Huxley, in Proc. Zool. Soc., 41. A condition of the cranium which tends to connect the two by a middle form, which may be termed amphistylic.
1881. F. Balfour, Comp. Embryol., II. 476. Skulls in which the mandibular arch has this double form of support have been called amphistylic.
