teiid

English

A teiid, Teius teyou

Adjective

teiid (not comparable)

1. Of or belonging to the Teiidae family of tropical American lizards.

Noun

teiid (plural teiids)

1. Any lizard in the family Teiidae.
   • 2003, Eric R. Pianka, Laurie J. Vitt, Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity, published 2006, page 195:

     The teiids we know today are a New World family, ecological counterparts of Old World lacertids. Historically, teiids had a wider distribution, at least in the Northern Hemisphere.

   • 2007, Lance D. McBrayer, Clay E. Corbin, “9: Patterns of head shape variation in lizards: morphological correlates of foraging mode”, in Stephen M. Reilly, Lance D. McBrayer, Donald B. Miles, editors, Lizard Ecology, page 293:

     As in our study, he found that taxonomic groups cluster together in morphospace (i.e. iguanians together, teiids and varanids together).

   • 2008, R. D. Bartlett, Patricia Bartlett, Lizard Care from A to Z: From Anoles to Zonosaurs, page 146:

     The highly attuned nervous system of racerunners and teiids makes them very adept at locating and grasping prey insects.

Hyponyms

• (lizard of family Teiidae): whiptail (genus Cnemidophorus)