Ardipithecus

American  

[ahr-di-pith-i-kuhs, ‐pi-thee-kuhs] / ˌɑr dɪˈpɪθ ɪ kəs, ‐pɪˈθi kəs /

noun

1. a genus of extinct hominine of the late Miocene and early Pliocene epochs, known from remains found in northeastern Ethiopia in the 1990s: its two named species are A. ramidus and A. kadabba .

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Etymology

Origin of Ardipithecus

First recorded in 1990–95; from New Latin, from Afar ard, ardi “earth” (from Arabic ʔarḍ ) + Latin pithēcus “ape” (from Greek píthēkos )

Example Sentences

Nearby, Haile-Selassie later found the lower jaw, teeth, and disarticulated bones of the hands, feet, and arm of Ardipithecus kadabba, dated to 5.8 million years ago.

From Science Magazine • Apr. 3, 2024

The “us” in Pattison’s story is the American and Ethiopian team, led by Tim White of the University of California, that found the Ardipithecus skeleton.

From New York Times • Dec. 22, 2020

However, fossils of the ancient potential hominin Ardipithecus ramidus suggest that living apes might have evolved quite specialized locomotion compared with their earlier ancestors.

From Nature • Nov. 5, 2019

In the intervening years, several more specimens of Ardipithecus, classified as two different species, demonstrated that the organism was bipedal.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2015

Tim White, head of the Laboratory for Human Evolutionary Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, has discovered many of our ancestors, from the ancient Ardipithecus to the much more recent Homo sapiens idaltu.

From Scientific American • Aug. 30, 2012