subungulateadj.n.
/səˈbʌŋɡjᵿlət/, U.S. /səˈbəŋɡjələt/, /səˈbəŋɡjəˌleɪt/ A. adj.
1. Zoology. Having hoof-like claws; having the toes partially encased in a horny sheath. Now rare.
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1829 Q. Jrnl. Sci. & Arts Oct. 348 Three to five toes on each foot, more or less equally developed, and included in a subungulate horny case.
1853 H. Medlock tr. F. Schoedler Bk. Nature (rev. ed.) 565 South America produces an endless variety of rodent animals, which are called subungulate, because their broad sheathing nails are somewhat like hoofs.
1907 Encycl. Brit. (New Werner ed.) XV. 420/1 Order Rodentia... Placental mammals of small size; with plantigrade or semiplantigrade, generally pentadactyle, unguiculate, rarely subungulate, feet.
1962 E. L. Cockrum Introd. Mammalogy xvi. 337 The body [of pacas] is relatively heavy, and the digits are subungulate.
2. Mycology. Of the pileus of a fungus: somewhat hoof-shaped; approaching, but not quite hoof-shaped. Now rare.
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1847 London Jrnl. Bot. 6 319 Pileus several inches across, subungulate or expanded, of a soft coriaceous or corky substance.
1878 30th Ann. Rep. N.Y. State Mus. Nat. Hist. 45 Pileus thick, sessile, convex or subungulate.
1914 Ann. Missouri Bot. Garden 1 115 Plants annual, sessile; pileus dimidiate, often subungulate.
1955 Mycologia 47 216 Usually sessile, the pileus convex to subungulate, white above, in age darkening.
3. Zoology and Palaeontology. Of or relating to a diverse group of mammals that probably evolved from primitive ungulates, comprising the elephants, hyraxes, sirenians, and (in some schemes) the aardvark.The elephants, hyraxes, and sirenians constitute a group sometimes known as Paenungulata, which, along with diverse African mammals, is now regarded as forming part of the superorder Afrotheria.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > [adjective]
hoofed1513
horn-footed1611
hoofya1674
hoof-footed1721
ungulated1822
ungulate1839
hoplopodous1854
subungulate1889
1889 Cent. Dict. Coryphodon, a genus of fossil Eocene quadrupeds, of the subungulate series, by some referred to the Amblypoda.
1937 Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc. 30 106 The relations of this group [sc. the extinct order Taligrada] to the various specialized subungulate orders parallel the relations of the Condylarthra to the specialized ungulate orders.
1971 L. H. Matthews Life of Mammals II. Xi. 325 They [sc. hyraxes] are often said to be the nearest relatives of the elephants, and to a certain extent this is true, for they both have many subungulate characters.
2003 R. Arora Encycl. Evolutionary Biol. xv. 289 Not improbably, proboscideans, sirenians, and hyracoids..are products of early Tertiary African evolution from a primitive subungulate stock.
B. n.
Zoology and Palaeontology. A subungulate mammal (sense A. 3).
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1891 W. T. Blanford Fauna Brit. India: Mammalia ii. 467 The true Ungulates form a very well-marked group, and all living forms are higher in organization than the Subungulates.
1945 Jrnl. Paleontol. 19 442/1 In the Early Eocene collections from surface localities the most abundant forms are: Coryphodon, a hippopotamuslike ‘subungulate’; [etc.].
1980 E. O. Wilson Sociobiology (abridged ed.) xxiii. 230/1 Elephants are called subungulates, an allusion to the fact that they originated from the same ancestral stock as the ungulates.
2002 J. Powell Manatees 13 They [sc. manatees and dugongs] belong to an interesting group of mammals referred to as subungulates and may be distantly related to ungulates.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1829