Mentum
Encyclopedia
The mentum refers to a projecting structure near the mouth of any of several animals:
- In insectInsectInsects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s, the mentum is the distal part of the labium. The mentum bears the palps, glossaGlossaGlossa may refer to several things:*glossa , a Greek word meaning "tongue" or "language" and is used in several English words including gloss, glossary, glossitis, and others...
e, paraglossae, and/or ligula. - On the humanHumanHumans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
faceFaceThe face is a central sense organ complex, for those animals that have one, normally on the ventral surface of the head, and can, depending on the definition in the human case, include the hair, forehead, eyebrow, eyelashes, eyes, nose, ears, cheeks, mouth, lips, philtrum, temple, teeth, skin, and...
, the mentum refers to the protruding part of chinChinIn the human anatomy, the chin is the lowermost part of the face.It is formed by the lower front of the mandible.People show a wide variety of chin structures. See Cleft chin....
. - In certain mollusks, the mentum refers to a thin projection below the mouth, as in the family PyramidellidaePyramidellidaePyramidellidae, common name the pyram family, or pyramid shells, is a voluminous taxonomic family of mostly small and minute ectoparasitic sea snails, marine heterobranch gastropod molluscs or micromolluscs....
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