noun
Zoology EmbryologyThe primary skull of vertebrates, composed of cartilage, which in humans and most other vertebrates is replaced by bone during development.
‘The taenia tecti medialis, a bar of cartilage on the dorsomedial surface of the chondrocranium that bisects the parietal portion of the frontoparietal fontanelle, evolved in the common ancestor to neobatrachians.’- ‘In bony vertebrates, endochondral bones form from centers of ossification in the chondrocranium, although much of the braincase often remains cartilage.’
- ‘The epaxial muscles insert on the posterior aspect of the chondrocranium, which later ossifies into the exoccipitals and supraoccipital of the skull.’
- ‘As with all crocodyliforms, the chondrocranium is invested with a series of internal recesses that presumably communicated with the pharynx in life.’
- ‘The skulls of Devonian lungfish have a tessera of small superficial bones, fused to an ossified chondrocranium.’
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