culmen

plural culmens · plural culmina

1. Top; summit.

   the Shibboleth and Culmen of Honesty

   1681, Balm from Gilead

   Synonyms: top, summit, acme, apex, apogee, crest, crown, fastigium

2. biologyThe dorsal ridge of a bird's bill.

   A very simple form was found in the carving shown in Pl. 17, fig. 13, where a long projecting knob is seen at the base of the culmen.

   1910, Alfred M. Tozzer, Glover M. Allen, Animal Figures in the Maya Codices

   1 more example

   The measurements were taken as follows: wing length, from the carpal joint to the tip of the longest primary; tarsus length, from the tibiotarsal joint to the distal undivided scute; upper mandible length, the chord length from the point where the culmen enters the feathers of the head to the tip; bill depth, in the vertical plane level at the anterior edge of the nares.

   1997 June 20, “A Role for Ecotones in Generating Rainforest Biodiversity”, in Science, volume 276, number 5320, →DOI, pages 1855–1857