Australopithecusn.
/ˌɒstrələ(ʊ)ˈpɪθᵻkəs/, /ˌɔːstrələ(ʊ)ˈpɪθᵻkəs/, U.S. /ˌɔstrəloʊˈpɪθəkəs/, /ˌɑstrəloʊˈpɪθəkəs/ Palaeontology.
Any of several extinct bipedal hominids of the genus Australopithecus, known from Pliocene and Pleistocene fossil remains found in southern and eastern Africa, dated to between 4.2 and 1.2 million years ago, and usually thought to contain the immediate ancestors of humans. Also (in form Australopithecus): the genus itself. Cf. Lucy n.2, Taung n.The genus Australopithecus includes several forms that were originally placed in separate genera, e.g. Plesianthropus n. and Zinjanthropus n. Workers who regard the robust forms as distinct place them in the genus Paranthropus.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > order Primates > suborder Anthropoidea (higher primates) > [noun] > group Catarrhinae (Old World monkey) > member of superfamily Hominoidea (apes and humans) > family Pongidae (ape) > fossil or extinct types
Dryopithecus1862
Sivapithecus1915
Australopithecus1925
Proconsul1933
Ramapithecus1934
Plesianthropus1938
australopithecine1941
australopith1949
Kenyapithecus1961
ramapithecine1972
Afropithecus1986
1925 Nature 28 Mar. 469/1 It is generally felt that the name Australopithecus is an unpleasing hybrid as well as etymologically incorrect.
1959 J. D. Clark Prehist. Southern Afr. iv. 74 It is an open question whether Australopithecus could have made pebble-tools, the earliest examples of intentionally made implements known.
1975 Acta Anatomica 92 580 While Australopithecus had an upright posture, this creature was, in the complex of posturally significant morphological features, distinct from extant hominoids.
2003 Cult Times May 45/4 Early Man, known as australopithecus, faces the difficulties of a world including sabre-toothed cats, malaria and the mighty deinotherium.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2011; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1925