cynodont

English

Etymology

From cyno- +‎ -odont, from Ancient Greek κύων (kúōn, “dog”) and ὀδόντος (odóntos), genitive singular of ὀδούς (odoús, “tooth, tusk”).

Noun

cynodont (plural cynodonts)

  1. (zoology) Any of several small carnivorous synapsids in the clade Cynodontia, ancestral to mammals and extinct close relatives.
    • 2022, Thomas Halliday, Otherlands, Penguin, published 2023, page 160:
      The Triassic immediately followed a devastating mass extinction, and the cynodonts diversified in its aftermath in much the same way mammals did in the Paleocene.

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