Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The typical genus of the family Palapterygidæ.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Paleon.) A large extinct ostrichlike bird of New Zealand.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • These great birds, together with others, such as the epiornis and palapteryx, have disappeared, not through the ordinary course of nature, but by the hand of man.

    A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder James De Mille

  • The sloths and armadilloes of South America had their gigantic predecessors in the enormous megatherium and mylodon, and the strongly armed glyptodon; the kangaroos and wombats of Australia had their extinct predecessors in a kangaroo nearly twice the size of the largest living species, and in so huge a wombat, that its bones have been mistaken for those of the hippopotamus; and the ornithic inhabitants of New Zealand had their predecessors in the monstrous birds, such as the dinornis, the aptornis, and the palapteryx, -- wingless creatures like the ostrich, that stood from six to twelve feet in height.

    The Testimony of the Rocks or, Geology in Its Bearings on the Two Theologies, Natural and Revealed Hugh Miller 1829

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