Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An extinct hominin postulated from a skull found in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, in 1959 and originally designated Zinjanthropus boisei by Louis S.B. Leakey. It was later renamed Paranthropus boisei.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun anthropology, paleontology, archaeology, obsolete A taxonomic genus within the subfamily Homininae — a group of extinct bipedal hominids.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun genus to which Australopithecus boisei was formerly assigned

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin Zinjanthrōpus, former genus name : Arabic zinj, zanj, the peoples of East Africa, black Africans + Greek anthrōpos, human being.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

from "Zinj" for the medieval East African region of Zanj, "anthropus" meaning ape or ape-human

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Examples

  • The name of the genus "Zinjanthropus" has since been dropped.

    Zinj and the Leakeys 2009

  • This group includes the Zinjanthropus and “Lucy,” a female ape, of which fragments were discovered by D. C. Johanson in 1974.17

    Modern Science in the Bible Ben Hobrink 2011

  • This group includes the Zinjanthropus and “Lucy,” a female ape, of which fragments were discovered by D. C. Johanson in 1974.17

    Modern Science in the Bible Ben Hobrink 2011

  • This group includes the Zinjanthropus and “Lucy,” a female ape, of which fragments were discovered by D. C. Johanson in 1974.17

    Modern Science in the Bible Ben Hobrink 2011

  • This group includes the Zinjanthropus and “Lucy,” a female ape, of which fragments were discovered by D. C. Johanson in 1974.17

    Modern Science in the Bible Ben Hobrink 2011

  • His pithy accounts explain how the fossils of everything from Archeopteryx to Tyrannosaurus to Zinjanthropus came to be discovered and interpreted.

    When We First Undertook A Search for Life on Earth Michael Shermer 2010

  • How did discovering Zinjanthropus boisei change life for your family?

    Zinj and the Leakeys 2009

  • What was happening on the site when your mother, Mary Leakey, made the discovery of Zinjanthropus boisei?

    Zinj and the Leakeys 2009

  • What has been the lasting impact of the Zinjanthropus discovery?

    Zinj and the Leakeys 2009

  • That's why they called it Zinjanthropus and later it became known as Australopithecus [Zinjanthropus] boisei.

    Zinj and the Leakeys 2009

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