Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The leading genus of the order Pterosauria.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a reptile genus of Pterodactylidae

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The two professors, their tempers aggravated no doubt by their injuries, had fallen out as to whether our assailants were of the genus pterodactylus or dimorphodon, and high words had ensued.

    The Lost World 1912

  • The two professors, their tempers aggravated no doubt by their injuries, had fallen out as to whether our assailants were of the genus pterodactylus or dimorphodon, and high words had ensued.

    The Lost World Arthur Conan Doyle 1894

  • Of these some were probably almost entirely aquatic, as their limbs take the form of paddles; others were purely terrestrial, a large proportion were amphibious, and some, as the pterodactylus, bore the same relation to the rest of their class as the bats bear to the other mammalia, being furnished with membranous wings, supported upon a special development of the anterior limbs.

    Story of Creation as Told By Theology and By Science 1854

  • boy: Here you are... it's the very last bits of the pterodactylus.

    Caption Contest James Gurney 2009

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