priˈmatal, a. (n.) Zool. rare.
[f. L. Primates + -al1.]
Of or pertaining to the order Primates. Also as n., An animal of this order.
| 1870 Cobbold in Athenæum 8 Oct. 468/2 It was..held that either of these groups, as we now know them, might have been separately evolved from more generalized primatal types... The assumedly missing tertiary primatals constituted a great and natural bar to the popular acceptance of the theory of descent by natural selection. |