diprotodon

See also: Diprotodon

English

Diprotodon optatum

Wikispecies

Etymology

From Ancient Greek δίς (dís, “twice, doubly”) + πρωτο- (prōto-) (combination form of πρῶτος (prôtos, “first”), superlative of πρό (pró, “before”)) + ὀδούς (odoús, “tooth”) or ὀδών (odṓn) (Ionic) — hence “two front teeth.”

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /daɪˈpɹəʊtədɒn/

Noun

diprotodon (plural diprotodons)

1. Any individual of the extinct marsupial genus Diprotodon, similar to a wombat in appearance but the size of a small elephant.
   • 1882, Royal Society of New South Wales, Journal and proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales‎^[1], volume 15, page 51:

     It is rather hard to understand how animals so largo and heavy as the diprotodons and gigantic kangaroos could have existed there when the country was in the same state in which it is now, […] .

   • 1893, Edward Jewitt Wheeler, Isaac Kaufman Funk, William Seaver Woods, The Literary Digest, volume 7, page 638:

     No fewer than eighty diprotodons are represented by the bones already unearthed, […]

   • 1993, Lyon Sprague De Camp, Rivers of Time, page 248:

     Soon we had a good view of the diprotodons, relatives of the present-day wombat but vastly larger.