As yet, the hyracodonts have been found only in North America, and the last genus of the series, Hyracodon, was a cursorial animal.
It may well have been the competition of the horses which led to the extinction of these cursorial rhinoceroses.
Amongst cursorial forms, there are some of the largest living birds, ostriches being actually the largest living birds, whilst an extinct running bird, the Aepyornis of Madagascar, was the largest known bird.
Michel Cohendy, the quantity of intestinal microbes in cursorial birds is not less than that found in mammals, even in man.
Although the huge cæca of these birds have a digestive function, particularly on plants rich in cellulose, I cannot think that the cæca of cursorial birds have been developed for digestion.
To meet this objection, it is necessary to turn to the case of cursorial birds.
If I am correct in the view that I have been explaining, cursorial birds, on account of their rich intestinal flora, ought to have a shorter duration of life than that of flying birds.
Ostriches, cassowaries, rheas, and tinamous, are well known examples of cursorial birds.
In the exercise of their cursorial powers, they move with remarkable swiftness, as with head depressed, and tail expanded, they run for their lives.
But these birds are best seen in the exercise of theircursorial powers, which the perfect development of their legs and feet, and the compressed, attenuated shape of the body are admirably adapted to promote.
It cannot be that it is learned by imitation, any more than the exercise of the cursorial powers can be said to be thus acquired.
New Zealand has no indigenous mammalia, but in their place great cursorial birds with but rudimentary wings.
In the cursorial races, such as the Ostriches and the Apteryx, whose wings are not available for flying, the keel is entirely wanting.
The principal characteristic of the cursorial race consists in the undeveloped condition of their wings, which are quite disproportioned to the size of their body.
As we have said, the Desert Courser Lark much resembles the Cursorial birds in many particulars.
We doubt the direct affinity to any species of the grallatorial order, an order which contains the cursorial or swift-running birds, very dissimilar in their prevailing habits to anything we know of the sluggish and sedentary Dodo.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "cursorial" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
