Standard Lemma guide

hesperornithid

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

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Pronunciation

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1

noun

Meaning 1

Any extinct avialan in the family Hesperornithidae.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: biology, history, human-sciences, natural-sciences, paleontology, sciences

Examples

  • 2020, Alan Feduccia, Romancing the Birds and Dinosaurs, Universal Publishers (BrownWalker Press), page 83, 9. Cretaceous foot-propelled divers, the hesperornithids, were grouped cladistically with loons (Eocene) and grebes (Miocene) as a clade, which would require re-evolution of teeth from an edentulous ancestor.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From translingual Hesperornithidae, from Hesperornis (“genus name”).