a. and sb. Zool. SPHEN(O)- + OTIC a.] a. adj. Of or pertaining to, formed by combination of, the sphenoid bone and otic structures in certain fishes and in birds. b. sb. The sphenotic bone or ossification.
1872. Mivart, Anat., 106. It may also, in Fishes, have added to it a large and distinct ossification, the sphenotic.
1884. Coues, N. Amer. Birds, 156. The post-frontal process, morphologically the post-frontal or sphenotic bone, bounds the rim of the orbit behind.
1885. Athenæum, 13 June, 764/1. He attempted to show … that the human lingulæ are homologous with the sphenotic of the bird.
1895. Proc. Zool. Soc., 371. The sphenotic process is also relatively somewhat shorter.
