| 释义 |
proavis|prəʊˈeɪvɪs|
Pl. -aves |-ˈeɪviːz|.
[f. pro-2 + L. avis bird.]
A hypothetical animal forming an evolutionary link between fossil reptiles and fossil birds. So proˈavian a., of or pertaining to an animal of this kind; also as n.
1907F. Nopcsa in Proc. Zool. Soc. I. 235 An effort to condense these hypothetical changes into a drawing is given in text-fig. 82, which might..be called a ‘Pro-Avis’. 1910W. P. Pycraft Hist. Birds ii. 37 It is to the earlier Jurassic formations..that we must look for traces of the pro-avian types. Ibid. 38 What these ‘pro-aves’ were like we can only dimly surmise. 1926G. Heilmann Orig. Birds iv. 191 The term Proavian or Proavis covers a form intermediate between reptile and bird. Ibid. 192 Before starting to reconstruct the proavian skeleton, we must try to gain a clear understanding of the particular peculiarities..that would lead on to the bird. 1962J. C. Welty Life of Birds xxiii. 481/2 Heilmann attempted the reconstruction of a hypothetical, missing-link ‘proavian’. 1974I. C. J. Galbraith tr. Dorst's Life of Birds I. xvi. 301 An intermediate hypothetical being [between reptiles and birds] has had to be erected and named Proavis. Ibid. 301 It is really more appropriate to imagine a series of proaves. |