Australopithecus
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- noun
- /ˌɔstrəloʊˈpɪθɪkəs/
- Specialized
- The famous fossil named 'Lucy' is classified as Australopithecus afarensis.
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Watch on YouTubeNo, I, I, I was reading a, a really great book about Australopithecus.
- No, I, I, I was reading a, a really great book about Australopithecus.
- We did not descend from Australopithecus, we didn't Lucy, we didn't descend from Neanderthal.
Examples
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She belongs to a species called Australopithecus afarensis.
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We look biologically very different from, say, from Lucy, from Australopithecus, from Homo erectus, from all these different species.
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So his book talks about Australopithecus and, and the move to from apes in trees to upright animals on planes.
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What you meant was that that entire hominid line didn't make it, because if they did, they'd still be, we'd have Australopithecus living next door.
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We did not descend from Australopithecus, we didn't Lucy, we didn't descend from Neanderthal.
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Australopithecus was an important species in the evolution of modern humans.
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Researchers discovered fossils of Australopithecus that provide insights into our ancestry.
Synonyms
A former scientific name for early human fossils that scientists now treat as Australopithecus
An old scientific name for early humanlike fossils now called Australopithecus
Compounds
- Specialized
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An extinct early human ancestor known from fossils found in Ethiopia
- Specialized
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An extinct early human ancestor that lived in southern Africa about three million years ago
- Specialized
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An early human relative with very large teeth that lived in eastern Africa one to two million years ago
- Specialized
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An extinct early human relative with large teeth that lived in southern Africa around two million years ago
Surface Forms
Morphology
Australopithecus = austral + pithecus
A specialized taxonomic compound formed from learned combining forms ('austral-' + '-pithecus') whose parts are not productive or familiar to average learners, so the meaning is not derivable by typical B1 users.
Etymology
Australopithecus is made of two parts: australis 'southern' and pithekos 'ape', so it literally means 'southern ape'. That's a handy memory hook because these extinct, early human-like apes were found in southern Africa, so the name connects to what they were and where they lived.