Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Having an uneven number of toes.
- adj. Of or relating to certain hoofed mammals, such as horses and rhinoceroses, of the order Perissodactyla, that have an uneven number of toes.
- n. A hoofed mammal of the order Perissodactyla.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Odd-toed, as a hoofed quadruped; of or pertaining to, or characteristic of, the Perissodactyla. Also perissodactylate, perissodactylic, perissodactylous.
- n. A member of the Perissodactyla; a perissad.
Wiktionary
- n. Any ungulate mammal with an odd number of toes and belonging to the Perissodactyla, including the horses, zebra, and rhinoceros.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. One of the Perissodactyla.
WordNet 3.0
- n. placental mammals having hooves with an odd number of toes on each foot
Etymologies
- New Latin perissodactylus, from Greek perissodaktulos : perissos, irregular, uneven (from peri, beyond); see per1 in Indo-European roots + daktulos, finger.
Examples
“No, no, my dear Varian, not just a primitive herbivore of this planet, but an Earth-type herbivore, of the group perissodactyl.”
“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).”
“A smaller coprolite Va2 unit shows a tridactyl, left foot impression of a perissodactyl.”
“The tapirs are an ancient family which has changed but little since it separated from the other perissodactyl stocks in the early Tertiary.”
“These animals, which are grouped with the horse among the ODD-TOED (perissodactyl) mammals, are now verging toward extinction.”
“-- 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.”
“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.”
“In the further reduction of the perissodactyl foot, the fifth digit, being shorter than the remaining three, next left the ground, and gradually disappeared.”
“The fifth digit, for the same reasons as in the perissodactyl foot, first left the ground and became smaller.”
“One leading to the existing perissodactyl foot, and the other, apparently later, resulting in the artiodactyl type.”
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