plesiometacarpal

From plesio- +‎ metacarpal.

plesiometacarpal (not comparable)

1. (zoology, of deer) Being part of the subfamily Cervinae, having lost the parts of the second and fifth metacarpal bones closest to the foot (though retaining the parts away from the foot).

   Coordinate term: telemetacarpal

   • 2014, Geer, Alexandra van der, 1963-, Mortality in a predator-free insular environment : the dwarf deer of Crete‎^[1], page 13:

     However, as we emphasize elsewhere all extant plesiometacarpal (i.e., Old World) deer, of which Candiacervus is an example, give birth to one fawn per season (twins are rare to very rare).

   • 1951 January 1, L. F. de Beaufort, Zoogeography of the land and inland waters (Text-books of animal biology)‎^[2], page 13:

     The wapiti is the only American representative of the plesiometacarpal deer, to which most Eurasian genera belong, all other American deer being telometacarpal.

   • 1941, Osgood Wilfred Hudson, Papers On Mammalogy‎^[3], page 125:

     For instance, according to his views, the Virginia deer, Odocoileus, and the pampas deer, Ozotoceros, both of them telemetacarpal and having the choanae divided by the vomer, should be considered as representing subgenera of the genus Darm, the typical species of which is the European fallow deer, that is to say, a plesiometacarpal species with undivided posterior nasal aperture.