Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various amniote vertebrates that emerged in the Permian Period and diversified in the Triassic, including the mammals, their ancestors, and their relatives.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun biology Any extinct reptile of the order Therapsida; thought to be direct ancestors of the mammals

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun probably warm-blooded; considered direct ancestor of mammals

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From New Latin Thērapsida, order name : Greek thēr, wild animal; see theropod + Greek hapsis, hapsid-, arch, vault (from the enlarged lower temporal opening characteristic of the group); see apsis.]

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Examples

  • Descended from creatures called therapsid reptiles, bats first took flight in the Triassic period more than two hundred million years ago.

    Going Mutant Dr. Barry Leed 2010

  • My first therapsid drawings were downright atrocious.

    Life's Time Capsule: The Long Road to Failure Zach 2009

  • His book “From the Beginning” was also a surprisingly detailed introduction to extinct fish, reptile, and therapsid art.

    Archive 2009-10-01 Weapon of Mass Imagination 2009

  • His book “From the Beginning” was also a surprisingly detailed introduction to extinct fish, reptile, and therapsid art.

    Life's Time Capsule: Member Bio: Nima Sassani Weapon of Mass Imagination 2009

  • As Romer puts it, “We arbitrarily group the therapsids as reptiles we have to draw a line somewhere but were they alive, a typical therapsid probably would seem to us an odd cross between a lizard and a dog, a transitional type between the two great groups of backboned animals.”

    What a difference a day makes. - The Panda's Thumb 2006

  • Because the fossil evidence of the transition from therapsid to mammal is extensive, detailed and well-studied, it is not surprising that most creationists make no mention of it.

    What a difference a day makes. - The Panda's Thumb 2006

  • “We arbitrarily group the therapsids as reptiles we have to draw a line somewhere but were they alive, a typical therapsid probably would seem to us an odd cross between a lizard and a dog, a transitional type between the two great groups of backboned animals.”

    Semmelweis: ID hero - The Panda's Thumb 2006

  • The entire series of therapsid transitionals are each fully functional, completely capable of chewing their food and detecting airborne sounds just as modern snakes eat with a double jaw joint and detect sounds through bones connected to their skull and jawbones.

    What a difference a day makes. - The Panda's Thumb 2006

  • “We arbitrarily group the therapsids as reptiles we have to draw a line somewhere but were they alive, a typical therapsid probably would seem to us an odd cross between a lizard and a dog, a transitional type between the two great groups of backboned animals.”

    Semmelweis: ID hero - The Panda's Thumb 2006

  • Gish makes one final effort to discredit the therapsid-mammal links: Many of the diagnostic features of mammals, of course, reside in their soft anatomy or physiology.

    What a difference a day makes. - The Panda's Thumb 2006

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