a. and sb. Also -dactyle. [ad. Gr. τετραδάκτυλ-ος having four digits, f. τετρα-, TETRA- + δάκτυλος finger.] a. adj. Having four fingers or toes. b. sb. A four-toed animal (esp. a vertebrate). Hence Tetradactylity, Tetradactyly, the condition of having four digits; also Tetradactylous a. = a.
1835. Kirby, Hab. & Inst. Anim., xvii. II. 194. The foot of birds is most commonly *tetradactyle, with one toe or thumb at the heel and the other three in front.
1847. Webster, Tetradactyl, an animal having four toes.
1891. Nature, 5 Feb., 329/2. If … a man has a finger amputated, his *tetradactylity is a somatogenic property.
1828. Webster, *Tetradactylous.
1851. Mantell, Petrifact., i. § 3. 70. Narrow-toed tridactylous or tetradactylous species [of birds].
1869. Gillemore, trans. Figuier’s Rept. & Birds, v. 421. The feet tetradactylous, and furnished with long and strong claws.
1904. Amer. Nat., XXXVIII. 3. From the ancestral canid Cynodictis of the Oligocene and lower Miocene,… to Lycaon in which structural *tetradactyly prevails.
