thecodont

American  

[thee-kuh-dont] / ˈθi kəˌdɒnt /

noun

1. any of various reptiles of the extinct order Thecodontia, occurring in the late Permian to late Triassic periods and characterized by teeth set in sockets.

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adjective

1. having the teeth set in sockets.

2. belonging to or pertaining to the Thecodontia.

thecodont British  

/ ˈθiːkəˌdɒnt /

adjective

1. (of mammals and certain reptiles) having teeth that grow in sockets

2. of or relating to teeth of this type

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noun

1. any extinct reptile of the order Thecodontia, of Triassic times, having teeth set in sockets: they gave rise to the dinosaurs, crocodiles, pterodactyls, and birds

thecodont Scientific  

/ thē′kə-dŏnt′ /

1. Any of various extinct primitive archosaurs of the order Thecodontia of the late Permian and Triassic Periods. Thecodonts had teeth in sockets and were probably ancestral to the dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and crocodilians.

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Etymology

Origin of thecodont

1830–40; < New Latin, equivalent to Greek thḗk ( ē ) case, chest ( theca ) + -odont- -odont; so named from the sockets in which the marginal teeth were implanted

Example Sentences

A genus of "Thecodont" Reptiles, so named in allusion to the fact that the teeth are sunk in distinct sockets.

From Project Gutenberg

The saurian called Belodon by H. von Meyer, of the Thecodont family, is another Triassic form, associated at Diegerloch with Microlestes.

From Project Gutenberg

Fractured bones and teeth of saurians which are truly of contemporaneous origin are dispersed through some parts of the breccia, and two of these reptiles called Thecodont saurians, named from the manner in which the teeth were implanted in the jawbone, obtained great celebrity because the patches of red conglomerate in which they were found, near Bristol, were originally supposed to be of Permian or Palaeozoic age, and therefore the only representatives in England of vertebrate animals of so high a grade in rocks of such antiquity.

From Project Gutenberg