repr. Gr. θηρο-, combining form of θήρ wild beast; hence THEROID, THEROPOD, etc.; also the following: Therocephallan [Gr. κεφαλή head], a. belonging to an extinct order of carnivorous reptiles having a skull of the mammalian type; sb. a reptile of this order. Therocrotaphous a. [Gr. κρόταφος the temple], having the temporal bone resembling that of mammals. Therodont sb. and a., = Theriodont (Cent. Dict., 1891): see THERIO-. Therolatry [-LATRY], beast-worship, worship of animals. Theromorphological a., of or pertaining to the morphology of the lower animals.
1904. Amer. Nat., Feb., 103. These cynodonts have lost several of the other more primitive characters of the *therocephalians, such as teeth in the palate.
1907. Science, 6 Dec., 796. Three new Therocephalian genera have been discovered in beds which are probably Middle Permian. Ibid. The discovery of this new reptile, Galechirus, strongly favors the descent of the Therocephalians from an early Rhyncocephaloid ancestor.
1907. Williston, in Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XXXII. 488. The plesiosaurs have a larger temporal vacuity, larger indeed than is to be found in any other reptiles of the *therocrotaphous (I coin the word) type.
1873. W. Cory, Lett. & Jrnls. (1897), 311. Mahomet’s alteration of a national character, the complete obliteration of *therolatry.
1885. Hartmann, Anthropoid Apes, iii. 111. Virchow and W. Gruber have agreed in representing this frontal process as *theromorphological—that is, as a characteristic of the lower animals, and more especially of apes.
