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Glite Dictionary
archosaur

archosaur

9.9
A group of extinct reptiles that includes ancestors and relatives of dinosaurs, flying reptiles, and crocodiles
  • noun
  • /ˈɑrkəˌsɔr/
  • Specialized
translation icon : arcosaurio
  • Scientists study fossil evidence to learn more about the early life of archosaurs.

Examples

  • If you want an excellent walk-through of that paper, go to Dave Hone's Archosaur Musings, where lead author Rick Thompson has a guest post up.

    Blog text (22)

  • The archosaur group includes both dinosaurs and their ancient relatives like crocodiles.

  • During the Triassic period, many impressive archosaurs thrived on Earth before going extinct.

Synonyms

archosaurian
vsarchosaur
  • Specialized
9.9

A reptile from a group that includes crocodiles, dinosaurs, and pterosaurs

focuses on ancestors and relatives of dinosaurs, pterosaurs and crocodilians

Surface Forms

archosaur singular
archosaurs plural

Morphology

archosaur = archo + saur

Formed from Greek combining elements ('archo-' + '-saur') that are not productive standalone English words and yield a specialized taxonomic meaning that an average B1 learner cannot derive from the parts.

Etymology

Archosaur comes from Greek parts archo- 'ruler', like the 'arch-' in archenemy, and -saur 'lizard'. So it literally means 'ruling lizard', which helps explain why this group included the dominant reptiles, such as the ancestors of dinosaurs and crocodiles.