zygodactyl
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Adjective
[edit]zygodactyl (not comparable)
- Having two toes pointing forward, and two pointing backward; zygodactylous.
- 2016 November 16, Hanneke Meijer, “Sunny steppes? A tiny parrot fossil suggests Siberia was once subtropical”, in The Guardian[1]:
- In parrots, the tarsometatarsus has a distinct shape resulting from the particular arrangement of parrot toes. As zygodactyl birds, toes number 2 and 3 are facing forward, while toes 1 and 4 are facing backwards.
Noun
[edit]zygodactyl (plural zygodactyls)
- (ornithology) Any bird with toes of this kind, such as the parrot.