saurognathism (sarognathizm)

[ Gr. σαύρος, & lizard, + γνάθος, the jaw.] saurognathous (sa-rog na-thus), a. [ ornith., having an arrangement of the bones of the palate which constitutes a simplification and degradation of the ægithognathous structure, as a woodpecker: as, a saurognathous bird or palate; a saurogna thous type of structure. The case is far from clear or satisfactory, though named, described, and figured by high authority' (the late William S. Kitchen Parker), and may be only an individual variation in some woodpeckers. In the flicker's skull here figured from pev nature is found a condition of things that fairly answers to Parker's description, subsist ing mainly in the presence of a pair stunted vomers separate from each other; but the like state of the parts does not appear in several other woodpeckers' skulls examined in the preparation of this paragraph.