Jump to content

hyracine

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

From hyrax +‎ -ine.

Adjective

[edit]

hyracine (comparative more hyracine, superlative most hyracine)

  1. (very rare) Of or relating to hyraxes.
    • 1864, Hugh Doherty, Organic Philosophy; Or, Manʼs True Place in Nature. Vol. 1 - Epicosmology, page 117:
      The galeopithecus [sic] unites the bats, the lemurs, and the monkeys, in one natural alliance, as the hyrax unites the rodents and the pachyderms. The proper name for these alliances would be galeopithecine and hyracine []
    • 1910, Sir Harry Johnston, “The Rise of Man Above the Beast”, in Harmsworth Natural History: A Complete Survey of the Animal Kingdom, Volume 1, page 29:
      From out of the early types of the hyracine ungulates—which then possessed the full normal number of teeth in Eutherian mammals; that is to say, three pairs of molars and four pairs of premolars, one pair of canines, and three pairs of incisor teeth in both jaws—developed the elephant order []