Potos flavus
- noun
- Specialized
:
Potos flavus
- With its long tail, the Potos flavus skillfully moves through the rainforest canopy searching for fruit.
Examples
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The Potos flavus is more commonly known as the kinkajou and is native to Central and South America.
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Many zoos house a Potos flavus to educate visitors about rainforest biodiversity.
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The Potos flavus is often referred to as the kinkajou.
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Did you know that the Potos flavus has a prehensile tail?
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Many zoos house a Potos flavus to educate visitors about rainforest biodiversity.
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The Potos flavus is more commonly known as the kinkajou and is native to Central and South America.
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With its long tail, the Potos flavus skillfully moves through the rainforest canopy searching for fruit.
Synonyms
1
9.9
A small nocturnal animal related to raccoons from Central and South America with a long tail that can hold branches
An animal that lives in trees, eats fruit, and has a long grasping tail
An animal from tropical America that lives in trees and uses its long tail to hold branches while eating fruit
Surface Forms
Morphology
Potos + flavus
This is a Latin binomial (scientific name) rather than an English compositional phrase: knowing 'Potos' as a genus does not give an average B1 learner the species meaning, and 'flavus' is not a known English word (it is Latin and absent from the provided dictionary). Species names are language-specific labels and not transparently derived from English constituents, so the meaning cannot be predicted by learners who only know the listed parts.
Etymology
Potos flavus may come from a local name 'potos' for the animal and the Latin word flavus meaning 'yellow', referring to its golden fur. So the name creates a simple image: a 'yellow' mammal that lives in trees and uses its long tail to move among the branches.