Pl. fossæ. Anat. [L. fossa ditch, fem. pa. pple. (understand terra, earth) of fodĕre to dig.] A shallow depression, pit, or cavity.
1830. R. Knox, Béclard’s Anat., 68. It [inflation of the abdomen] also causes the contents of the stomach to flow by the œsophagus into the larynx, the nasal fossæ or the mouth.
1856–8. W. Clark, Van der Hoeven’s Zool., II. 505. Sphenostoma Gould. Bill short, compressed, curved. Nostrils basal, placed in a fossa.
1870. G. Rolleston, Forms of Animal Life, 6. Whence probably the inverse ratio which has been observed to obtain between the temporal and the antorbital fossae is to be accounted for.
