endopodite

[ en-dop-uh-dahyt ]

noun

, Zoology.

1. the inner or medial branch of a two-branched crustacean leg or appendage.

Other Words From

• en·dop·o·dit·ic [en-dop-, uh, -, dit, -ik], adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of endopodite¹

1865–70; endo- + -podite < Greek pod- (stem of poús ) foot + -ite ¹

Example Sentences

The standard trilobite limb is segmented into three distinct portions — a walking leg, or endopodite, and a gill structure, the exopodite, are connected to the body by a spiny food-processing section, the protopodite.

From New York Times

Instead of having a spiny, triangular protopodite for processing food, they had a smooth, rounded structure attached to a short, flexible fingerlike endopodite that was just half the length of the creature’s other walking legs.

From New York Times

The jaws have the gnathobasic endites developed at the expense of the rest of the limb, the endopodite and exopodite persisting only as sensory “palps” or disappearing altogether.

From Project Gutenberg

General Morphology of Appendages.—Amid the great variety of forms assumed by the appendages of the Crustacea, it is possible to trace, more or less plainly, the modifications of a fundamental type consisting of a peduncle, the protopodite, bearing two branches, the endopodite and exopodite.

From Project Gutenberg

In many cases, one of the branches, generally the endopodite, is more strongly developed than the other.

From Project Gutenberg