LATERAL LINE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Lateral line

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/lˈætərəl laɪn/ Listen

adjective

Lateral adj.

Of or pertaining to the sides; as, the lateral walls of a house; the lateral branches of a tree.

(Anat.) Lying at, or extending toward, the side; away from the mesial plane; external; opposed to mesial.

Directed to the side; as, a lateral view of a thing.

Lateral cleavage (Crystallog.), cleavage parallel to the lateral planes.

Lateral equation (Math.), an equation of the first degree. (Obs.)

Lateral line (Anat.), in fishes, a line of sensory organs along either side of the body, often marked by a distinct line of color.

Lateral pressure or Lateral stress (Mech.), a pressure or stress at right angles to the length, as of a beam or bridge; distinguished from longitudinal pressure or stress.

Lateral strength (Mech.), strength which resists a tendency to fracture arising from lateral pressure.

Lateral system (Bridge Building), the system of horizontal braces (as between two vertical trusses) by which lateral stiffness is secured.

See images of 'Lateral line'

Etymology of 'Lateral line'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Lateral line" Quotes from Famous Books

... margins of the eye respectively. The knob-like finger tips at once suggest one of the tree-toads, and the presence of the two lines seems to indicate Hyla eximia as the species represented. In this tree-toad there is a long black lateral line running posteriorly from the tympanum and above it a shorter line just as in the drawings. It appears to be a common species in the valley of Mexico though but little seems to have been written of its habits. At the beginning of the rainy season it repairs to pools of water ...

— Animal Figures in the Maya Codices • Alfred M. Tozzer and Glover M. Allen

... and two deep; the sides and bottom thick, the materials moss, worsted, and birch-bark, lined with hair and feathers. The stream affords the parr,[57] a small species of trout seldom exceeding eight inches in length, marked on the sides with nine large bluish spots, and on the lateral line with small red ones. No traveller should omit visiting Yorke Cascade, a magnificent cataract, amidst most suitable scenery, about a mile distant from the house. This country is very mountainous, has no natural woods, except of birch; ...

— Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745 - Volume II. • Mrs. Thomson

... able to detect the anal or sexual pores. The anal sucker seems to be formed of four rings, and on each side above is a sort of crenated flesh-like appendage. The tint of the common species is yellowish-brown or snuff-coloured, streaked with black, with a yellow-greenish dorsal, and another lateral line along its whole length. There is a larger species to be found in this garden with a broad green dorsal fascia; but I have not been able to procure one although I have offered a small reward to any coolie who will bring me one." In a subsequent communication Mr. Thwaites remarks ...

— Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon • J. Emerson Tennent

... individuals, six in number and of categories 2 and 3, are simultaneously completing the juvenal to postjuvenal molt and beginning the postjuvenal to adult molt. The juvenal to postjuvenal molt begins, as has been described by various authors, along the lateral line and proceeds dorsally and ventrally and anteriorly and posteriorly, and the last patch to lose the gray juvenal color is the top of head and nape, or less frequently the rump. In some individuals a gray ...

— Mammals of Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado • Sydney Anderson

... and then cut the skin from head to tail in a straight line. A mark called the subdorsal or lateral line is an excellent guide for this. With a strong pair of scissors,—or rather shears, cut through the scapular arch (the large bone beneath the gills—see Fig. 34, A). Slip the knife under the edges of the cut skin, and lift the skin the whole of the way ...

— Practical Taxidermy • Montagu Browne