Plate (anatomy)

Appearance move to sidebar hide Pteraspidomorphs (Pteraspis shown) are prehistoric jawless fish characterized by their massive dermal head armour having large, median, ventral and dorsal plates or shields.

A plate in animal anatomy may refer to several things:

Flat bones (examples: bony plates, dermal plates) of vertebrates

• an appendage of the Stegosauria group of dinosaurs
• articulated armoured plates covering the head of thorax of Placodermi (literally "plate-skinned"), an extinct class of prehistoric fish (including skull, thoracic and tooth plates)
• bony shields of the Ostracoderms (armored jawless fishes) such as the dermal head armour of members of the class Pteraspidomorphi that include dorsal, ventral, rostral and pineal plates
• plates of a carapace, such as the dermal plates of the shell of a turtle
• dermal plates partly or completely covering the body of the fish in the order Gasterosteiformes that includes the sticklebacks and relatives
• plates of dermal bones of the armadillo
• Zygomatic plate, a bony plate derived from the flattened front part of the zygomatic arch (cheekbone) in rodent anatomy

Other flat structures

• hairy plate-like keratin scales of the pangolin
• Basal plate (disambiguation), several anatomy-related meanings

Other meanings in human anatomy

• Alar plate, a neural structure in the embryonic nervous system
• Cribriform plate, of the ethmoid bone (horizontal lamina) received into the ethmoidal notch of the frontal bone and roofs in the nasal cavities
• Epiphyseal plate, a hyaline cartilage plate in the metaphysis at each end of a long bone
• Lateral pterygoid plate of the sphenoid, a broad, thin and everted bone that forms the lateral part of a horseshoe like process that extends from the inferior aspect of the sphenoid bone
• Nail plate, the hard and translucent portion of the nail
• Perpendicular plate of the ethmoid bone (vertical plate), a thin, flattened lamina, polygonal in form, which descends from the under surface of the cribriform plate, and assists in forming the septum of the nose

Related structures

• Scute, a bony external plate or scale overlaid with horn, as on the shell of a turtle, the skin of crocodilians and the feet of birds
• Sclerite, a plate forming the exoskeleton of invertebrates

See also

• Plate (disambiguation)

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