Zeuglodon

Definition of Zeuglodon:

part of speech: noun

An extinct genus of marine mammals, regarded by Huxley as intermediate between the true cetaceans and the carnivorous seals. The species had an elongated snout, conical incisors, and molar teeth with triangular serrated crowns, implanted in the jaws by two roots, each molar appearing to be formed of two separate teeth united at the crown ( whence the generic name). They belong to the eocene and miocene, the best known species being Z. cetoides of the middle eocene of the United States, which attained a length of 70 feet. The first found remains were believed to be those of a reptile, and the name Basilosaurus was therefore given to them.

Usage examples for Zeuglodon:

• Still, if some of these creatures had been spared, they might well have passed for sea- serpents, even though Zeuglodon the one most like a serpent in form, was the one most remotely related to snakes. "Animals of the Past", Frederic A. Lucas.

• The extinct Zeuglodon however, presents us with an intercalary form between the type of the Seals and that of the Whales. "Critiques and Addresses", Thomas Henry Huxley.

• Clarke County, United States, Zeuglodon of. "The Student's Elements of Geology", Sir Charles Lyell.

• Whales evolved from some land ancestry at a very early date in the Tertiary; in the marine deposits of the Eocene are found the bones of the Zeuglodon a whalelike creature seventy feet in length. "The Elements of Geology", William Harmon Norton.