azhdarchid

English

Etymology

From scientific Latin Azhdarchidae (family name), ultimately from Persian اژدر (“mythological serpent”).

Noun

azhdarchid (plural azhdarchids)

1. Any member of the Azhdarchidae, a family of pterosaurs known primarily from the late Cretaceous including some of the largest known flying animals of all time.
   • 2017 February 8, Elsa Panciroli, The Guardian‎^[1]:

     There are few creatures that embody the strangeness of the extinct quite like azhdarchids.

   • 2022, Thomas Halliday, Otherworlds, Penguin, published 2023, page 98:

     Azhdarchid pterosaurs, the largest-ever living flyers, bigger and lighter than Orville and Wilbur Wright's early aeroplanes, glided overhead.