| 释义 |
marsupial, a. and n.|mɑːˈsjuːpɪəl|
Also 7– -eal.
[ad. mod.L. marsūpiālis, f. L. marsūpi-um pouch, purse (see marsupium). The zoological use of the L. word was introduced by Tyson, who in 1698 uses the neuter marsupiale as a generic name for the opossum; he also has ossa marsupialia marsupial bones (see A. 2 b).]
A. adj.
1. Pertaining to or resembling a ‘marsupium’ or pouch. marsupial muscle (in mod.L. musculus marsupialis): see quot. 1696. marsupial capsule: in a colony of Polyzoa, an individual serving only for the reception of ova.
1696Phillips (ed. 5), Marsupeal Muscle, the ninth Muscle in order whereby the Thigh is mov'd. 1843Owen Lect. Comp. Anat. Invertebr. 109 In this state they are transferred from the ovarium to the marsupial vesicles... In the ova of the marsupial sacs, Siebold could no longer discern the germinal vesicle... The marsupial ova next assume an increase of size. 1878Bell Gegenbaur's Comp. Anat. 132 Some persons may serve only for the reception of ova, and form the so-called marsupial capsules.
2. Used as a designation of mammals (including the kangaroos, opossums, etc.) of the family Marsupialia, characterized by having a pouch (covering the mamillæ) in which to carry their young, which are born imperfectly developed; of or pertaining to this family.
1825Zool. Jrnl. I. 405 These three states of genital products require three distinct situations, which in the normal mammifera, are found within the sexual canal; but in the marsupial they are very differently distributed. 1832Lyell Princ. Geol. II. 89 More than forty species of the marsupial family. 1870Rolleston Anim. Life 64 From the reproductive gland to the marsupial pouch. 1898Morris Austral Eng. 288 Marsupial Mole, the only species of the genus Notoryctes, N. typhlops.
b. Connected with the pouch in marsupial animals.
1819Rees Cycl. s.v. Didelphis, The abdominal pouch is sustained by means of two bones of a peculiar structure, and which in allusion to their functions have been called the marsupial bones. 1834Owen in Phil. Trans. CXXIV. 334 These bones..defend the abdominal viscera from the pressure of the young as these increase in size during their mammary or marsupial existence. Ibid., The subject of marsupial generation. 1896Kirkaldy & Pollard tr. Boas' Text Bk. Zool. 496 The Marsupials have marsupial bones.
B. n. A marsupial animal.
1835Penny Cycl. III. 127. 1839 Ibid. XIV. 450 The leading peculiarity in these Marsupials is, so to speak, the premature birth of their young. 1896[see A. 2 b].
attrib.1885H. Finch-Hatton Advance Australia 106 An Act known as the Marsupial Act was accordingly passed to encourage their destruction... Some of the squatters have gone to a vast expense in fencing in their runs with marsupial fencing. |