a. (sb.) Anat. and Zool. [ad. mod.L. sternālis, f. STERN-UM: see -AL. Cf. F. sternal.] A. adj.
1. Of, pertaining to, or connected with the sternum or breast-bone.
1756. G. Douglas, trans. Winslow’s Struct. Hum. Body (ed. 4), I. 234. The Sternal Portion passes foremost and covers the Clavicular.
1833. Mantell, Geol. S. E. Eng., 307. A small sternal bone has been discovered.
1835–6. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., I. 201/2. This sternal plastron is distinctly shewn.
1890. Coues, Ornithol., 212. Birds offer two leading types of sternal structure, the ratite and the carinate.
2. Situated on the same side as the sternum; anterior (in man) or inferior (in other animals); ventral; hæmal. (Opposed to dorsal, tergal, or neural.)
1803. J. Barclay, New Anat. Nomencl., 120. Instead of Anterior and Posterior, we might adopt Sternal and Dorsal.
1814. J. H. Wishart, trans. Scarpa’s Treat. Hernia, Mem. 1. 34. The anterior surface [note, Sternal Aspect] of the abdomen.
3. Of or pertaining to a sternum or sternite in Arthropoda; sternitic. (Often coinciding with 2.)
1835. Kirby, Habits & Inst. Anim., II. xvi. 89. A bilobed organ which Savigny calls a sternal tongue.
1852. Dana, Crustacea, I. 20. Each of these rings consists normally of eight parts or segments,—two below, called sternal, two above, called dorsal, [etc.].
1880. Huxley, Cray-Fish, 20. Its under, or what is better called its sternal surface.
B. as sb. A sternal bone.
1901. Hatcher, in Mem. Carnegie Mus., I. I. 40. Taken together the sternals of Diplodocus would thus form a shallow raft-like sternum.
