endoskeleton

Noun

endoskeleton (plural endoskeletons or endoskeleta)

1. The internal skeleton of an animal, which in vertebrates is composed of bone and cartilage.
   • This is the case not only with all forms provided with exoskeleta and endoskeleta, into the composition of which lime largely enters, but also with those which exercise the precipitating effect on the calcium salts they absorb from sea water, the precipitation rarely going so far as to form a...1903 January 17, A[rchibald] B[yron] Macallum, “The Palæochemistry of the Ocean in Relation to Animal and Vegetable Protoplasm”, in Transactions of the Canadian Institute, volume VII, Toronto, Ont....
   • Endoskeleta have the advantage that they can be flexibly “restructured” when the situation demands.1978, K.H. Pribram, “Modes of Central Processing in Human Learning and Remebering”, in Timothy Teyler, editor, Brain and Learning, Stamford, Conn.: Greylock Publishers, →ISBN, section “The...