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apteryx

   Also found in: Medical, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.01 sec.
ap·ter·yx  (pt-rks)
n.
See kiwi.

[New Latin Apteryx, genus name : a- + Greek pterux, wing; see pet- in Indo-European roots.]

apteryx [ˈæptərɪks]
n
(Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Animals) another name for kiwi (the bird)
[from New Latin: wingless creature; see apterous]
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Noun1.apteryxapteryx - nocturnal flightless bird of New Zealand having a long neck and stout legs; only surviving representative of the order Apterygiformes
flightless bird, ratite, ratite bird - flightless birds having flat breastbones lacking a keel for attachment of flight muscles: ostriches; cassowaries; emus; moas; rheas; kiwis; elephant birds
genus Apteryx - type genus of the Apterygidae: kiwis


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If about a dozen genera of birds had become extinct or were unknown, who would have ventured to have surmised that birds might have existed which used their wings solely as flappers, like the logger-headed duck(Micropterus of Eyton); as fins in the water and front legs on the land, like the penguin; as sails, like the ostrich; and functionally for no purpose, like the Apteryx.
 
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