Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various large carnivorous saurischian dinosaurs of the suborder Theropoda of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, characterized by bipedal locomotion, large jaws, and short forelimbs.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Having feet like those of (mammalian) beasts, as a dinosaur; of or pertaining to the Theropoda.
- n. A carnivorous dinosaur of the order Theropoda.
- n. Also theriopod, and (erroneously) therapod.
Wiktionary
- n. Any large, bipedal dinosaur, of the suborder Theropoda, from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any of numerous carnivorous dinosaurs of the Triassic to Cretaceous with short forelimbs that walked or ran on strong hind legs
Etymologies
- From New Latin Thēropoda, suborder name : Greek thēr, wild beast; + New Latin -poda, -pod. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Also, we have another tiny, new dinosaur, the smallest carnivorous yet known from North America, Hesperonychus elizabethae, a 19-inch tall theropod from the Late Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada.”
“True feathers, so far as we know, were restricted to maniraptorans (the theropod clade that includes oviraptors, dromaeosaurs and birds), but simpler, filament-like integumentary structures appear to have evolved much earlier within theropod history, probably at or around the base of Coelurosauria.”
Happy Christmas, from gigantic Spanish sauropods... or, alas, poor ‘Angloposeidon’
“If Mirischia the Brazilian theropod is one of my little pets, the enormous sauropod represented by the cervical vertebra MIWG. 7306 – affectionately (and unofficially) known to some of us as 'Angloposeidon' – is one of the biggest [the image at left, and that below, are my drawings of the specimen].”
“A preliminary account of a new tyrannosauroid theropod from the Wessex Formation (Early Cretaceous) of southern England.”
“Known as a theropod because it walks on its two hind legs, the is said to be a close relative of T-rex.”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“He believes a type of two-legged, carnivorous dinosaur called a theropod made the tracks.”
“Both Dr. Norell and Dr. Erickson emphasized that their findings did not undermine the theory widely held among paleontologists that birds evolved from what are known as theropod dinosaurs.”
“First identified in southern Brazil by the Argentinian palaeontologist Osvaldo Reig, H. ischigualastensis had a mosaic of traits that meant it was difficult to define as a theropod, or even to be sure it was a dinosaur.”
“The researchers think Aerosteon, a type of dinosaur called a theropod, may have evolved this breathing style in part to keep it from toppling over while chasing prey on its two massive legs.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘theropod’.
-
-opods
footed feet - Got legs?
glassopod, actinopod, adelopod, anthropod, baenopod, brachiopod, branchiopod, cephalopod, cercopod, chenopod, chilopod, condylopod and 32 more...
-
Dan: You read this already. — Your p...
Long ago, I learned a useful habit from a good friend: Every time he looked up a word in his dictionary, he’d put a mark next to it. His explanation for this was vague at best, but I understood a...
dittography, haplology, haplography, idiomology, cacoepy, orthoepist, psellism, pronunciation spe..., galbe, theropod, publican, sciolist and 111 more...
-
Dinosaurs, extended
At first, this was a list for things found in Dinosaurs: A Concise Natural History by David E. Fastovsky. But now it's degenerated a bit to contain anything dinosaur or fossil related.
disarticulate, body fossil, trace fossil, apatite, soft anatomy, permineralization, replacement, articulated, disarticulated, intestine’s-eye view, ichnofossil, paleoenvironment and 270 more...
-
Evolution
darwin, hms beagle, galapagos, evolution, natural selection, select for, confer, survival advantage, environmental pre..., mutation, genome, homozygous and 193 more...
-
akmed13's Words
time, spaceship, quantum mechanics, time traveller, bezonkers, strakh, path integrals, gorbfest, amphigory, amber, bicycle, amphisbaena and 358 more...
-
Just 'cause I like 'em, T
torquate, thalassocracy, toothsome, travois, tempestuous, tone, tincture, tripwire, tether, trill, tenacious, travesty and 355 more...
-
Words of Dinosaurology
This quickly got bigger and weirder than originally intended, so now it's housing terms that relate to the study of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. See also Dinosaurs, Pterosaurs, Ichthy...
zygopophyses, ziphodont, plesiomorphic, cleidoic, endothermy, ectothermy, viviparous, vertebrae, cervical, dorsal, sacral, caudal and 628 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for theropod.
alexz This is one of those words where dictionaries fail users. If you have to look up Theropod, it really doesn't help that the dictionary uses words like " saurischian" "Theropoda" - (nothing like a recursive definition) "Jurassic" "Cretaceous" : "bipedal locomotion, large jaws, and short forelimbs" - finally, after all the jargon they use plain english to describe a T-Rex.
May 5, 2013
fbharjo t rex for one Jul 30, 2009
strev old macdonald's version;
"here a pod, thereapod everywhere a pod, pod..." Jun 20, 2009