part of part of neural spine epural A free, modified neural spine of a preural or a ural vertebra that is placed between the last developed neural spine of a preural centrum and the dorsal axis (= anterior margin of first uroneural) of the caudal skeleton . An epural commonly supports one or more dorsal procurrent rays. An epural is an unpaired median perichondrally ossified bone. epiural apophysis epurals The origin of the epurals is unclear, three hypotheses have been proposed: 1) The epurals are modified radials or dorsal radials; 2) the epurals are detached neural spines and may support fin rays; and 3) the epurals are a serial homologue of the supraneuralia. At least in teleosts the epural is a detached neural spine. For details see Schultze and Arratia (1989) and Arratia and Schultze (1992). UBERON:2000660 éphural ZFA:0000660 epiural This class was sourced from an external ontology (teleost_anatomy). Its definitions, naming conventions and relationships may need to be checked for compatibility with uberon épural caudal fin skeleton