megafauna

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂s

Proto-Hellenic *mégas

Ancient Greek μέγᾰς (mégăs)der.

English mega-

English fauna

English megafauna

From mega- + fauna.

Noun

megafauna (plural megafaunas or megafauna)

1. The large animals of a given region or time, considered as a group.
   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 131:

     The extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna had ended there long before it had in Europe, and so a "broad spectrum" of food collecting had been going on for some time.

2. A treatise on such a group of large animals.

Derived terms

• charismatic megafauna
• megafaunal

Translations

large animals

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: megafauna (fi), suureläimistö
• French: mégafaune (fr) f
• Galician: megafauna f
• Georgian: მეგაფაუნა (megapauna)
• Greek: μεγαπανίδα (el) f (megapanída)
• Portuguese: megafauna (pt) f
• Romanian: megafaună f
• Spanish: megafauna f
• Swedish: megafauna (sv) c

See also

• megafauna on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌmeɡaˈfauna/ [ˌme.ɣ̞aˈfau̯.na]
• Rhymes: -auna
• Syllabification: me‧ga‧fau‧na

Noun

megafauna f (plural megafaunas)

1. (zoology) megafauna