Describing vertebrae that are hollow or concave in a distinctive way, characteristic of certain ancient fish.
From Greek hetero- (different) and koilos (hollow) with Latin adjectival ending -ous, describing the structure of vertebral bodies.
These heterocoelous vertebrae tell us something amazing about evolution—the shape of your backbone is radically different from that of ancient fish because natural selection favored different spine mechanics!
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.