a. and sb. [ad. mod.L. tetrapod-us, ad. Gr. τετράπους, τετραποδ- four-footed, f. τετρα-, TETRA- + ποῦς (ποδ-) foot. Cf. F. tétrapode.] a. adj. Having four feet or four limbs; spec. in Entom., belonging to the Tetrapoda, a division of butterflies having only four perfect legs, the anterior pair being unfitted for walking. b. sb. A four-footed animal; one of the Tetrapoda, applied by Credner to all vertebrates higher than fishes; in Entom., a butterfly belonging to the Tetrapoda. Hence Tetrapodichnite, Geol. [ICHNITE], the fossil footprint of a four-footed beast; Tetrapodology, a treatise on quadrupeds; Tetrapodous a. = sense a. above.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., IV. xlvi. 343. Tetrapod,… an insect having only four perfect legs.
1835–6. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., I. 265/2. No species of Bird ever deviates … from the tetrapodous type of formation.
1844. Page, Rudim. Geol., § 215 (1851), 126, note. Professor Hitchcock adds a third class, tetrapodichnites, or the footsteps of some unknown four-footed animal.
1860. Mayne, Expos. Lex., Tetrapodologia..., term for a treatise on quadrupeds; tetrapodology.
