Diprotodon

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A massive extinct plant-eating marsupial that roamed Australia during the Pleistocene epoch, resembling a giant wombat
2. An enormous herbivorous pouched mammal from ancient Australia, now extinct, which was the largest marsupial known to have existed
3. Any of the very large extinct herbivorous marsupials of prehistoric Australia, related to modern kangaroos and wombats

Etymology: Diprotodon was named in 1838 by the English naturalist Richard Owen, who worked from fossil remains found in Australia. The name is built from three Greek elements: "di" meaning two, "proto" meaning first, and "odon" meaning tooth. Together they describe the animal's most striking feature, a pair of large front incisors in the lower jaw, which Owen judged to be the first and most prominent of its teeth. The creature itself was enormous, a relative of modern wombats and koalas, and it lived across Australia until roughly tens of thousands of years ago. Its name therefore records a naturalist's first impression of the skull, a small piece of Greek packed into a description of a giant marsupial.