Meckel's Cartilage
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Related to Meckel's Cartilage: Meckel's diverticulum, Reichert's cartilage
Meckel's cartilage
[′mek·əlz ‚kärt·lij] (embryology)
The cartilaginous axis of the mandibular arch in the embryo and fetus.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Meckel’s Cartilage
the primary mandible in gnathostomes and man, named for J. Meckel.
In all fish (except the cartilaginous group) and terrestrial vertebrates, Meckel’s cartilage is clad in integumentary bones and may itself be partly or completely ossified. The ossified posterior section of Meckel’s cartilage, the articular bone, joins the quadrate bone at the mandibular joint. In mammals, the articular and quadrate bones become the auditory ossicles (the malleolus and the incus); the remaining part of Meckel’s cartilage is reduced (preserved only in the embryo).
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.