rigid spine

But she said nothing at all, merely turned away with a rigid spine and knelt down to tend the fire.

There was flat challenge in Kate's rigid spine.

The pencil in Sarah's hand tapped lightly against the rigid spine of her log pad.

By moving first one leg and then the other and bracing himself with his rigid spine, the big man slowly descended.

The five to seven (rarely nine) radiating, rigid spines are gray-brown.

The spine's bones (vertebrae) may grow or fuse together, resulting in a rigid spine.

To make the comparison more accurate, we must imagine such a burr covered with limp threads instead of rigid spines.

He stared at that rigid spine for a long moment, then uttering a soft oath, he walked around the fireplace.

"To discredit him in turn," Gray Harbor said, still speaking slowly, staring at the younger man's rigid spine.

There seemed to be no way to bend the rigid spine of Zai's Vadan upbringing.

This fin is divided by rigid spines, which can be raised or lowered at will (often in response to a threat, or for stability).

Dennie rode a lift up one of the spokes connecting the dry-wheel to the ship's rigid spine.

Both fore- and hind-wings consist of about six rigid spines, from which radiate flexible bristles.

Down on the mid-deck, men tying off the last of the mainsail's singing lines felt cold sweat snaking down their rigid spines.

Only the proud tilt of her head, her rigid spine, and the fire burning in her eyes kept her from looking like a refugee of war.

They differ from the swelltoads and burrfishes (genus Cyclichthys and Chilomycterus), which have fixed, rigid spines.

At the top of each hair cell is a forest of about 100 tiny, rigid spines called stereocilia, the "hairs" that give the hair cell its name.

He said he envisions the technology taking a hybrid form, like a book with a rigid spine attached to pages that are thin and flexible enough to roll up.

The mats are moulded into conventional 14' x 8' sections and the body has an embedded patented (Eco-Flex ) rigid spine which makes each mat extremely durable and virtually indestructible.

Conway Morris gave Hallucigenia its name because in his reconstruction it looked bizarre - a worm-like animal that walked on long, rigid spines and had a row of tentacles along its back.

The massive ribcage was made up of overlapping ribs and the animal possessed a stronger skeletal structure, a more rigid spine, and forelimbs apparently powerful enough to pull the body from the water.

Fish of the genus Cyclicthys have three-rooted, rigid spines (actually modified scales) distributed over their bodies, and beak-like jaws, used to crush their hard-shelled prey (crustaceans and molluscs).

The Tineodidae or false plume moths are a family of moths with in some cases unusually modified wings: Like in some related moths, the wings of several Tineodidae are decomposed into several rigid spines.

Aside from her low weight, Maris is subject to various medical problems: she has abnormally tight quadriceps, a rigid spine, a large number of very specific allergies, she cannot produce saliva, and has a slight webbing of her hands that made her self-conscious enough to shy away from their physical touch.