squamation

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

squama +‎ -ation

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

squamation (countable and uncountable, plural squamations)

  1. (zoology, uncountable) The condition or character of being covered with scales.
    • 1881, Nature, № 627, page 2/1:
      A Palæoniscoid fish showing a condition of squamation almost identical with that of Polyodon.
    • 2004, B.G. Kapoor, Bhavna Khanna, Ichthyology Handbook, →ISBN, page 63:
      The literature is poorly documented on the development of squamation in fishes other than teleosts except in the primitive actinopterygian fishes, the holosteans Lepisosteus and Amia.
  2. (zoology, countable) A particular arrangement of scales; a special mode or form of squamation.
    • 1889, Henry Alleyne Nicholson, Richard Lydekker, A Manual of Palæontology, 3rd edition, volume II, page 987:
      A fish from the Muschelkalk…has been made the type of the genus Prohalecites on account of peculiar features in its squamation.
    • 1900 September 20, Nature, page 507/1:
      Eurynotus…still retains the palæoniscid squamation.
    • 1997, Laurence Monroe Klauber, Rattlesnakes: Their Habits, Life Histories, and Influence on Mankind, →ISBN:
      These series are found to have a considerable consistency within a subspecies, as well as constant differences between subspecies, so that squamation, or scale arrangement, is of the greatest importance in the classification of snakes.
  3. (pathology, dermatology, countable) A scaly growth on the skin.
    • 2010, Gary Jennings, The Journeyer, →ISBN, page 285:
      Meanwhile, the lividity will spread over your skin, and it will darken to black, and it will pouch out into gummata and blebs and furuncles and squamations until your entire body—including your face resembles one great bunch of black raisins.

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