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The skeleton of the head of a vertebrate animal, including the brain case, or cranium, and the bones and cartilages of the face and mouth. See Illusts. of Carnivora, of Facial angles under Facial, and of Skeleton, in Appendix.

y phyllostome bat. -- Specter candle (Zoöl.), a belemnite. -- Specter shrimp (Zoöl.), a skeleton shrimp. See under Skeleton.

A skeleton, or frame, having radiating arms or members, often connected by crosspieces; as, a casting forming the hub and spokes to which the rim of a fly wheel or large gear is bolted; the body of a piston head; a frame for strengthening a core or mold for a casting, etc. Spider ant. (Zoöl.) Same as Solitary ant, unde…

umn, the backbone, or connected series or vertebræ which forms the axis of the vertebrate skeleton; the spine; rachis; vertebral column. -- Spinal cord, the great nervous cord extending backward from the brain along the dorsal side of the spinal column of a vertebrate animal, and usually terminating in a threadlike ap…

Any element of the skeleton in relation with the alimentary canal, as the jaws and hyoidean apparatus. -- Splanch`nap`o*phys"i*al, a. Mivart.

The elastic fibrous skeleton of many species of horny Spongiæ (keratosa), used for many purposes, especially the varieties of the genus Spongia. The most valuable sponges are found in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and on the coasts of Florida and the West Indies.

a series of bony or cartilaginous plates or segments, in the median line of the pectoral skeleton of most vertebrates above fishes; the breastbone.

or on the ventral side of, the vertebral column; situated beneath, or inside of, the endoskeleton; hypaxial; hyposkeletal.

A genus of halcyonoids in which the skeleton, or coral (called organ-pipe coral), consists of a mass of parallel cylindrical tubes united at intervals by transverse plates. These corals are usually red or purple and form large masses. They are natives of the tropical parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.…

To deprive of flesh; to reduce a skeleton. "Unfleshed humanity." Wordsworth.

ach.) (a) A mortise gear. (b) A wheel having a rim perforated to receive wooden cogs; the skeleton of a mortise gear. -- Measuring wheel, an odometer, or perambulator. -- Wheel and axle (Mech.), one of the elementary machines or mechanical powers, consisting of a wheel fixed to an axle, and used for raising great wei…