ornithorhynchus

American  

[awr-nuh-thuh-ring-kuhs] / ˌɔr nə θəˈrɪŋ kəs /

noun

1. the platypus.

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ornithorhynchus British  

/ ˌɔːnɪθəʊˈrɪŋkəs /

noun

1. the technical name for duck-billed platypus

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Etymology

Origin of ornithorhynchus

1790–1800; < New Latin: genus name, equivalent to ornitho- ornitho- + -rhynchus < Greek rhýnchos bill

Example Sentences

When the first specimens were taken to Europe a hoax, we are told, was suspected, the idea being that the bill and the feet had been cunningly attached to the body; but the platypus is too common a creature for the idea to be long entertained, and so its existence was officially acknowledged, and it received the title Ornithorhynchus.

From Project Gutenberg

A creature that unites in himself the nature and the power of every animal; more wonderful than the ornithorhynchus—he is fish, flesh, and fowl.

From Project Gutenberg

Thus the gap between mammals and birds is said to be filled by the "ornithorhynchus paradoxus," an animal living in a vast island, in which scarcely one quadruped mammalian is known to have existed, and where the aboriginal birds form a class peculiar to Australia, and have no resemblance to the creature referred to.

From Project Gutenberg

Very skilful accommodation was needful, if the limitation of sloths to South America, and of the Ornithorhynchus to Australia, was to be reconciled with the literal interpretation of the history of the Deluge; and, with the establishment of the existence of distinct provinces of distribution, any serious belief in the peopling of the world by migration from Mount Ararat came to an end.

From Project Gutenberg

Lastly, the adult male ornithorhynchus is provided with a remarkable apparatus, namely a spur on the foreleg, closely resembling the poison-fang of a venomous snake; its use is not known, but we may suspect that it serves as a weapon of offence.294 It is represented by a mere rudiment in the female.

From Project Gutenberg