mouse-goat

noun

An extinct genus of goat-antelope (†Myotragus), which lived on the Balearic Islands in the late Pleistocene and early Holocene.

Meanings

nounmouse-goat (plural mouse-goats)

plural mouse-goats

  1. An extinct genus of goat-antelope (†Myotragus), which lived on the Balearic Islands in the late Pleistocene and early Holocene.

    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
    2 more examples

    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

    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

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

mouse-goat. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mouse-goat

MLA

“mouse-goat.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mouse-goat. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mouse-goat,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mouse-goat.

Source: mouse-goat on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.