Cynomys gunnisoni

9.9

A small prairie dog from the southwestern United States with a white-tipped tail

noun

Specialized

: perro de pradera de Gunnison

The distinctive white-tipped tail helps identify Cynomys gunnisoni from other prairie dog species.

Examples

The population of Cynomys gunnisoni in New Mexico has declined due to habitat loss.
Biologists observed several colonies of Cynomys gunnisoni during the summer survey.
Look at that Cynomys gunnisoni!
The Cynomys gunnisoni is commonly found in Colorado.
The distinctive white-tipped tail helps identify Cynomys gunnisoni from other prairie dog species.
The population of Cynomys gunnisoni in New Mexico has declined due to habitat loss.
Biologists observed several colonies of Cynomys gunnisoni during the summer survey.

Surface Forms

Cynomys gunnisoni singular

Morphology

Cynomys + gunnisoni

This is a scientific binomial composed of the genus name 'Cynomys' (prairie dog) plus a species epithet 'gunnisoni'; a learner who knows 'Cynomys' can infer it refers to a particular kind of prairie dog. However, 'gunnisoni' is a proper-name species label with no independent lexical meaning and the specific trait (white-tipped tail) is not predictable from the parts, so understanding relies on knowledge of biological naming rather than ordinary compositional semantics.

Etymology

Cynomys gunnisoni comes from two parts: Cynomys, a word that means 'dog' and 'mouse' because prairie dogs look like small dogs, and gunnisoni, which honors an explorer named Gunnison. That's why the name refers to this particular prairie dog with a 'white-tipped tail' found in the southwestern United States.