cheiropterygium

plural cheiropterygia

1. anatomyThe typical pentadactyloid limb of the higher vertebrates.

   The relation of the ichthyopterygium to the cheiropterygium is also at present obscure; the structure of the latter is fundamentally identical in all those animals in which it occurs.

   1887, Alfred Cort Haddon, An Introduction to the Study of Embryology, page 204

   4 more examples

   All anatomists are agreed that the limbs of the higher Vertebrata are derived from those of Fishes, but the gulf between the two types of limbs is so great that there is room for a very great diversity of opinion as to the mode of evolution of the cheiropterygium.

   1885, Francis Maitland Balfour, A Treatise on Comparative Embryology: Vertebrata, page 621

   If the limbs of Ceratodus may be taken as a pattern of an ichthyopterygium there has been a secular shortening of some, and suppression of other, axial parts or internodes: thus we get the shortened radiating fan-shaped limb—the propert cheiropterygium; that, in turn, had to be transformed into the avian fore limb or wing .

   1891, William Kitchen Parker, On the Morphology of the Reptilian Bird, Opisthocomus Cristatus, page 82

   The chiridial appendage (cheiropterygium) is primarily a walking leg (Fig. 50, a), designed to aid in pushing the body along the ground or, when extremely developed, to support the body above the surface and assume the entire function of locomotion.

   1909, Harris Hawthorne Wilder, The History of the human body, page 183

   While all these differences may be simply primitive characters, separating members of two distinct classes, nevertheless they raise the question whether the tetrapod resembles in the pectoral fin of rhizodonts may not be fortuitous, and without phylogenetic significance; but in view of the differences in function of the Sauripterus paddle and a true cheiropterygium such underlying similarities as may exist can hardly be attributed to convergence, and when taken in connection with the resemblances in the skull above noted (pp. 332-337) they gain in importance.

   1915, William King Gregory, Present Status of the Problem of the Origin of the Tetrapoda, page 362