Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of various hoofed mammals of the order Perissodactyla, having an odd number of toes, either one or three, on each foot. Perissodactyls include the horses, tapirs, and rhinoceroses.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Odd-toed, as a hoofed quadruped; of or pertaining to, or characteristic of, the Perissodactyla. Also
perissodactylate , perissodactylic, perissodactylous. - noun A member of the Perissodactyla; a perissad.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) One of the Perissodactyla.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any
ungulate mammal with anodd number of toes and belonging to thePerissodactyla , including thehorses ,zebra , andrhinoceros .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun placental mammals having hooves with an odd number of toes on each foot
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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"No, no, my dear Varian, not just a primitive herbivore of this planet, but an Earth-type herbivore, of the group perissodactyl."
Cattle Town 2010
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They name this clade Pegasoferae, a name derived by uniting Pegasus (in their view a sort of bat-perissodactyl combination) with Ferae (the name they use for the carnivoran + pangolin clade).
We flightless primates Darren Naish 2006
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They name this clade Pegasoferae, a name derived by uniting Pegasus (in their view a sort of bat-perissodactyl combination) with Ferae (the name they use for the carnivoran + pangolin clade).
Archive 2006-08-01 Darren Naish 2006
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A smaller coprolite Va2 unit shows a tridactyl, left foot impression of a perissodactyl.
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A smaller coprolite Va2 unit shows a tridactyl, left foot impression of a perissodactyl.
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The tapirs are an ancient family which has changed but little since it separated from the other perissodactyl stocks in the early Tertiary.
The Elements of Geology William Harmon Norton 1900
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These animals, which are grouped with the horse among the ODD-TOED (perissodactyl) mammals, are now verging toward extinction.
The Elements of Geology William Harmon Norton 1900
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-- Bones of the foot of four different forms of the perissodactyl type, showing gradual reduction in the number of digits, coupled with a greater consolidation of the bones above the digits.
Darwin, and After Darwin (Vol. 1 and 3, of 3) An Exposition of the Darwinian Theory and a Discussion of Post-Darwinian Questions George John Romanes 1871
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The best instance of such progressive modifications in the case of perissodactyl feet is furnished by the fossil pedigree of the existing horse, because here, within the limits of the same continuous family line, we have presented the entire series of modifications.
Darwin, and After Darwin (Vol. 1 and 3, of 3) An Exposition of the Darwinian Theory and a Discussion of Post-Darwinian Questions George John Romanes 1871
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In the further reduction of the perissodactyl foot, the fifth digit, being shorter than the remaining three, next left the ground, and gradually disappeared.
Darwin, and After Darwin (Vol. 1 and 3, of 3) An Exposition of the Darwinian Theory and a Discussion of Post-Darwinian Questions George John Romanes 1871
MaryW commented on the word perissodactyl
Mark Essig, Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig (New York: Basic Books, 2015), ch. 1.May 15, 2016