One of the bony segments of the spinal column

Usage examples of vertebra.

Her vertebrae are beginning to crumble because of metastatic breast disease.

They exhibited a relatively short metatarsus, the pubis was directed backward, and they had long processes on the tail vertebrae, which stiffened the back half of the long tail.

With an overhand stroke he plunged his long-bladed knife between two vertebrae where they were outlined by loose-hanging skin.

I began to palpate the lumbar vertebrae, feeling my way along, watching for any sign of pain.

She stood up, leaned back on her hind feet, dug her foreclaws into the ground well in front of her, gave her vertebrae a thorough stretching, then recompacted herself and walked casually toward the Giants, her tail carried like a tall exclamation point over the round dot beneath.

Generally the first point of invasion is the cartilaginous substances between the bodies of the vertebrae, beginning with inflammation, and finally resulting in ulceration and a breaking-down of the cartilages.

The twins were united below the third sacral vertebrae in such a manner that they could lie alongside of each other.

In man the lumbar vertebrae have sometimes assumed the character of the sacral vertebrae, the sacral vertebrae presenting the aspect of lumbar vertebrae, etc.

Additional features distinguishing dinosaurs from other reptiles include: the division of the vertebral column into several regions, a long and mobile neck, and at least three sacral vertebrae in contact with the pelvis.

Characteristic of ornithischians are, among other skeletal features, the presence of ossified tendons along the vertebral column and the presence of at least five sacral vertebrae in contact with the pelvis.

But in addition to this brain there was a well-developed nerve centre in the region of the sacral vertebrae which was several times as large as the brain proper.

Because the heads of sauropod dinosaurs in particular were small and the first cervical vertebra also small and the cranio-cervical joint relatively weak, disarticulation by current action and scavengers was common.

Evolution increased the strength of the vertebrae, and reduced the amount of weight of the skeleton as sauropod vertebrae have a number of cavities and vertebral connections were reduced to slender rods and struts.

A sufficiently severe back and crosswise wrench of the head against the contraction of the anterior scalene usually tears or loosens the anterior tubercles of the fourth through the sixth vertebrae.

Then it dawned on him that the thing on the other side of the hedge was only a robed assemblage of ribs and femurs and vertebrae if viewed from one point of view but, if looked at slightly differently, was equally just a complexity of sparging arms and reciprocating levers that had been covered by a tarpaulin which was now blowing off.