Dictionary

mouse-goat en · NOUN

Etymology

Translating Myotragus (genus name).

Meanings

1. An extinct genus of goat-antelope (†Myotragus), which lived on the Balearic Islands in the late Pleistocene and early Holocene.
   • Bones of this animal – the so called ‘mouse-goat’, Myotragus balearicus – were first discovered by the pioneering fossil hunter Dorothea Bate (1878–1951). 2014, Paul D. Taylor, Aaron O'Dea, A History of Life in 100 Fossils, page 201:
   • It was once thought that the first humans in the Balearics had domesticated the mouse-goat, as what appeared to be pens filled with dung were found in some caves. 2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: The First 100 Million Years, Penguin, published 2019, page 249:
   • Other island examples include pygmy hippos, pygmy deer, pygmy foxes, and the peculiar “mouse-goat”—an extinct species of dwarf sheep that had lived on the Balearic Islands of Spain. 2011, Dennis McCarthy, Here Be Dragons:

Forms