Lexic.us

Definition of Tapetum

1. n. An area in the pigmented layer of the choroid coat of the eye in many animals, which has an iridescent or metallic luster and helps to make the eye visible in the dark. Sometimes applied to the whole layer of pigmented epithelium of the choroid.

Definition of Tapetum

1. Noun. (anatomy) A membranous layer of tissue ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Tapetum

1. a layer of cells in some plants [n -TA] : TAPETAL [adj]

Medical Definition of Tapetum

1. 1. Layer of reflective tissue just behind the pigmented retinal epithelium of many vertebrate eyes. May consist either of a layer of guanine crystals or a layer of connective tissue. In bovine eyes reflects a blue green iridescent colour. 2. Layer of cells in the sporangium of a vascular plant that nourishes the developing spores. This entry appears with permission from the Dictionary of Cell and Molecular Biology (11 Mar 2008)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Tapetum

Literary usage of Tapetum

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Spider Book: A Manual for the Study of the Spiders and Their Near by John Henry Comstock (1912)
"In eyes with a funnel-form tapetum there is no pigment in front of the tapetum; but in the second type of funnel-form tapetum-eyes described above, ..."

2. Morphology of Angiosperms: (Morphology of Spermatophytes. Part II) by John Merle Coulter, Charles Joseph Chamberlain (1903)
"The innermost parietal layer, as a rule, becomes part of the tapetum, which is a jacket of nourishing cells in immediate contact with the sporogenous tissue ..."

3. The Year-book of Facts in Science and Art by John Timbs (1848)
"We ean thus understand why the tapetum does not injure vision, and why the animals whose eyes are provided with it have need of less light than others. ..."

4. The Archaeological Journal by British Archaeological Association (1896)
"In Capella majori tapetum album cum rubeis rosis j. Item .tapetum cum ... Item tapetum vetus cum ..."

5. A popular description of the human eye, with remarks on the eyes of inferior by William Whalley (1874)
"The tapetum is absent in man and many of the minor quadrupeds, also in birds, and all fishes excepting the ray, in which it is of a beautiful silvery ..."

6. The Boston Journal of Philosophy and the Arts by John White Webster, John Ware, Daniel Treadwell (1824)
"Herbivorous animals, as the ox, are supposed to have the tapetum in their eyes of a greener colour than carnivorous animals, in order to reflect the green ..."

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