Definition of metatherian in English:
metatherian
noun ˌmɛtəˈθɪərɪənˌmedəˈTHirēən
Zoology A mammal of the group Metatheria; a marsupial.
Example sentencesExamples
- In each case, we used the maximum set of overlapping eutherian and metatherian taxa (appendix); some taxa were chimeric (appendix).
- This order of metatherians contains two species, the marsupial moles (Notoryctes caurinus and Notoryctes typhlops; the status of N. caurinus has been questioned).
- The metatherian opossum was used as an outgroup.
- The record of Mesozoic metatherians remains negligible or non-existent for southern landmasses, though the Tertiary record has greatly improved.
- Recently this pattern of dental development has been hypothesized to be a synapomorphy of metatherians, and has been used to diagnose taxa in the fossil record.
adjective ˌmɛtəˈθɪərɪənˌmedəˈTHirēən
Zoology Relating to or denoting metatherians.
Example sentencesExamples
- The metatherian opossum was used as an outgroup.
- If the metatherian patterns of skull development, tooth replacement and reproduction are correlated, deltatheroideans may already have possessed the basic marsupial reproductive pattern.
- In contrast, metatherian fossils from the Late Cretaceous are exclusively from Eurasia and North America (which formed the supercontinent Laurasia).
- Traditionally, research has been directed at the in-depth comparisons of genome structure between metatherian and eutherian gene maps to better understand genome evolution.
- We discuss possible explanations for reduced female recombination in marsupials as a consequence of the metatherian characteristic of determinate paternal X chromosome inactivation.