heterodont UK /ˈhɛtəɹəʊdɒnt/US /ˈhɛtəɹəˌdɑnt/noun 3adjective 2forms 1 noun3 •A heterodont animal.We have Homodonts, or animals with teeth quite homogeneous in shape, and Heterodonts, those having teeth of dissimilar shapes, the large majority of mammals being Heterodonts. — 1878 •A heterodont bivalve.Ordovician actinodontoids are probably ancestral to the heterodonts, unionaceans, and trigoniaceans. — 1971 •A snake of the genus Heterodon which is native to North America.The second suborder (Macrosformes) corresponds with the Heteroderms of M. André Marie Constant Duméril. These are divided into seven families: […] 4. the Heterodonts, (Dendrophis, Coronella, &c.); […] — 1841 adjective2 •Having teeth of different types (like most mammals)."On the Homologies and Notation of the Teeth of Mammalia," by W[illiam] H[enry] Flower, F.R.S. […] The classification and special homologies of the teeth of the heterodont mammals was next discussed. — 1868 •Of bivalves or their hinge teeth: having two to three wedge-shaped cardinal teeth set in the centre near the umbones, generally also with elongated lateral teeth on the anterior and posterior margins.The heterodont arrangement is characteristic of the Venus clams and cockles. formsheterodonts
