mesodontadj.
/ˈmɛsə(ʊ)dɒnt/, U.S. /ˈmɛzəˌdɑnt/ 1. Physical Anthropology and Zoology. Having teeth of medium size.In quot. 1877 relating spec. to a proposed suborder of fossil mammals, Mesodonta (Cope).
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1877 Amer. Naturalist 11 752 The Mesodonts are apparently related to the Prosimiæ and Quadrumanes.
1884 Jrnl. Anthropol. Inst. 14 186 Mesodont Races. Chinese, American Indians [etc.].
1908 Amer. Naturalist 42 112 Important migrations..of the mesodont primates (Notharctidæ, genus Protoadapis).
1934 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) B. 223 579 In R[hinoceros] sondaicus the height of the tooth is almost exactly the same as the width, and a tooth of this proportion may be taken as a standard to which the term mesodont may very properly be applied.
1965 Science 2 July 32/1 The early hominines must have been contemporaries of several diversified australopithecines—a megadont line (A. boisei), a macrodont line (A. robustus), and a mesodont line (A. africanus).
1983 Jrnl. Mammalogy 64 273 The molars, though typically brachydont, became mesodont in Pediomeryx.
2. Entomology. Of a stag beetle: having medium-sized projections on the mandibles.
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1883 Athenæum 29 Dec. 870/3 Four very distinct phases of development in their mandibles, which the author proposed to term ‘priodont’, ‘amphiodont’, ‘mesodont’, and ‘telodont’.
1885 Trans. Zool. Soc. 11 400 The gap between the mesodont and telodont [sic] forms long remained unbridged.
1899 D. Sharp in Cambr. Nat. Hist. VI. 193 The largest developments being called teleodont, the smallest priodont; the terms mesodont and amphiodont being applied to intermediate states.
1957 O. W. Richards & R. G. Davies Imms's Gen. Textbk. Entomol. (ed. 9) iii. 784 It is often possible to distinguish large (teleodont), small (priodont), and intermediate (mesodont) forms [of the mandibles].
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1877