Lagerpetid

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A member of an extinct family of small, agile dinosauriforms from the Triassic period, believed to be among the earliest relatives of pterosaurs and dinosaurs
2. A type of prehistoric reptile classified within Lagerpetidae, notable for its light build and important evolutionary position linking early archosaurs to flying reptiles
3. An ancient clade of Triassic archosauriforms characterized by specific skeletal features, significant for understanding the origin and diversification of pterosaurs and dinosaurs

Etymology: Lagerpetid takes its shape from a genus name rather than from an everyday word. The reptile family is named after Lagerpeton, a Triassic animal whose name was built from two Greek words: "lagōs", meaning hare, and "herpetón", meaning reptile or creeping thing. The Greek combination describes a small, fast-moving reptile that was apparently thought to resemble a hare in some way, a comparison that now reads as an odd choice for a creature of this kind. The suffix "-id" is the standard scientific ending that marks membership of a family, so lagerpetid simply means a member of the Lagerpeton family. Its parts come straight from classical Greek, but the combined name is a modern scientific coinage made for the fossil record, not a word that ancient Greeks would have used.

Synonyms: lagerpetidae