Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • proper noun (Poleon.) A genus of extinct animals, so named from fossil footprints rudely resembling impressions of the human hand, and believed to have been made by labyrinthodont reptiles. See Illustration in Appendix.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • At Hessberg, in Saxony, the vestiges of four distinct animals have been traced, one of them a web-footed animal of small size, considered as a congener of the crocodile; another, whose footsteps having a resemblance to an impression of a swelled human hand, has caused it to be named the cheirotherium.

    Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation Robert Chambers 1836

  • The footsteps of the cheirotherium have been found also in the Stourton quarries above mentioned.

    Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation Robert Chambers 1836

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