Definitions

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

  • noun Any of several extinct humanlike primates of the genus Australopithecus and closely related genera such as Ardipithecus and Paranthropus.

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

  • adjective taxonomy, archaeology, anthropology, paleonotology Of or pertaining to the extinct hominid primates, of the genus Australopithecus, from the Pleistocene period
  • noun taxonomy, archaeology, anthropology, paleonotology Any of several extinct hominid primates, of the genus Australopithecus, from the Pleistocene period

Etymologies

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

[From New Latin Austrālopithēcus, genus name.]

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Examples

  • The upper body differences lead the authors to suggest, with some caution, that “the Dmanisi hominins would have had a more australopith-like than human-like upper limb morphology”.

    The Panda's Thumb: Jim Foley Archives 2010

  • At the very least, this new fossil merely illustrates not only that the australopith phylogenetic “bush” was wider than we thought, but does illuminate a bit more knowledge regarding how the earliest Homo hominims divulged from their australopith relatives.

    Australopithecus sediba and the creationist response - The Panda's Thumb 2010

  • Rather than looking at a handful of traits or casually declaring australopiths to be apes, the present study has supported the separate classification of humans genus Homo sensu lato and as many as three groups containing australopith taxa, based on a suite of characters selected from conventional paleoanthropology studies.

    Creationist vs. creationist on Homo habilis - The Panda's Thumb 2010

  • As noted above, Hartwig-Scherer (1999) considers H. habilis an australopith, but Lubenow (2004, pp. 299-301) and Line (2005a) believe some H. habilis specimens might be human.

    Creationist vs. creationist on Homo habilis - The Panda's Thumb 2010

  • The upper body differences lead the authors to suggest, with some caution, that “the Dmanisi hominins would have had a more australopith-like than human-like upper limb morphology”.

    The Panda's Thumb: Transitional Fossils Archives 2010

  • This seems to satisfy the condition for safely concluding a basic type from fossil evidence: the alleged australopith precursors are very different from the earliest members of Homo, Homo appears suddenly and distinct in the fossil record from any earlier forms, and subsequent forms of Homo are variants of and very similar to the initial forms of Homo.

    Meet Selam - The Panda's Thumb 2006

  • The article goes on to say "they do claim that" Sediba "shares more derived features with early Homo species than any other australopith species and thus might help reveal the ancestor of that genus."

    Conservapedia - Recent changes [en] DanieleGiusto 2010

  • The article goes on to say "they do claim that" Sediba "shares more derived features with early Homo species than any other australopith species and thus might help reveal the ancestor of that genus."

    Conservapedia - Recent changes [en] ChrisY 2010

  • The article goes on to say "they do claim that" Sediba "shares more derived features with early Homo species than any other australopith species and thus might help reveal the ancestor of that genus."

    Conservapedia - Recent changes [en] Aschlafly 2010

  • The article goes on to say "they do claim that" Sediba "shares more derived features with early Homo species than any other australopith species and thus might help reveal the ancestor of that genus."

    Conservapedia - Recent changes [en] DanieleGiusto 2010

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