The plural form or taxonomic grouping of birds or animals with heterodactyl feet; a classification of species sharing this unusual digit arrangement.
Latin plural or nominative of heterodactylus, from Greek hetero- and daktylos, used in zoological taxonomy.
Early ornithologists noticed that certain bird families clustered together with these unusual foot arrangements, so they created heterodactylae as a taxonomic group—though modern DNA analysis has since reshuffled the family tree!
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