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Glite Dictionary
non-avian dinosaur

non-avian dinosaur

1 7.9
A prehistoric animal like Tyrannosaurus or Triceratops that was not a bird
  • noun
  • /nɒnˈeɪviən ˈdaɪnəsɔr/
  • Specialized
translation icon : dinosaurio no aviar
  • Tyrannosaurus rex is one of the most famous examples of a non-avian dinosaur.

Examples

  • It was among the final non-avian dinosaurs to exist.

    Blog text (2)

  • Or the Chicxulub impact (if it wasn't the Indian Deccan traps supervolcano) 65 MYA, which did in the non-avian dinosaurs.

    Blog text (1)

  • The non-avian dinosaur lived on Earth millions of years before birds appeared.

  • Scientists study fossils to learn more about non-avian dinosaurs and their behaviors.

Synonyms

dinosaur
vsnon-avian dinosaur
390 3.0

A large extinct animal from long ago, like T. rex

excludes birds and focuses on species that lived before the end of the Cretaceous

Antonyms

avian dinosaur
  • Specialized
7.9

A kind of animal that includes modern birds and older bird-like animals

Surface Forms

non-avian dinosaur singular
non-avian dinosaurs plural

Morphology

non-avian + dinosaur

The phrase is compositionally built from 'non-avian' (not bird/avian) + 'dinosaur' so the meaning — a dinosaur that is not a bird — follows directly from the constituents. The negation prefix and the noun combination are regular and cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows the parts can reliably infer the intended sense.

Etymology

Non-avian dinosaur was made by scientists when they realized that animals we call 'birds' are actually a kind of dinosaur, so they needed a name for dinosaurs that are non-avian, 'not birds'. That's why non-avian dinosaur usually means the dinosaur species that died out long ago.