rupicaprine

English

Adjective

rupicaprine (not comparable)

1. Relating to, or resembling, the chamois, or other extinct mammals of the genus Rupicapra.
   • 1918, Geographical Review‎^[1], volume 6, page 10:

     They are also sometimes called the Rupicaprine antelopes from the scientific name of the chamois (Rupicapra).

   • 1921, Henry Fairfield Osborn, The Age of Mammals in Europe, Asia and North America, page 476:

     Conspicuous among the new arrivals is the mountain goat (Oreamnos), the first member of the rupicaprine division of the antelope family to be recorded in North America.

   • 2013, Jordi Agusti, Mammoths, Sabertooths, and Hominids‎^[2]:

     Among the ungulate world, the entries were much more limited, restricted, in fact, to the first elk of the species Libralces gallicus (from the site of Sene`ze, France), sometimes included in the genus Cervalces; the rupicaprine bovid Gallogoral Gallogoral meneghini; and one species of the ovibovine bovid Praeovibos (whose oldest record comes from the latest Pliocene beds of Almenara I and Barranco Conejos, Spain).

Noun

rupicaprine (plural rupicaprines)

1. A mammal of the genus Rupicapra; a chamois.
   • 1984, K. Kuhbièr, Biogeography and Ecology of the Pityusic Islands, page 117:

     An excellent indication of this fact is the absence in Pityusic Pleistocene sites of the rupicaprine Myotragus, which is so frequent in the ossiferous Quaternary breccia of Mallorca and Menorca.

   • 1994, Y. P. S. Pangtey, High Altitudes of the Himalaya:

     The caprines, apart from rupicaprines and Saigini have been included by Schaller (1977) in the category 'selective grazer and browser; uses several vegetation types; seasonal diet change; large home area' of Jarman's (1974) classification.

   • 2012, Hiroaki Soma, The Biology and Management of Capricornis and Related Mountain Antelopes‎^[3]:

     These two very distinct genera appear to form a convenient bridge between the antelopes on the one hand and the rupicaprines on the other.