Dryopithecus
Americannoun
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an extinct genus of generalized hominoids that lived in Europe and Africa during the Miocene Epoch and whose members are characterized by small molars and incisors.
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one of the four subgenera of this genus, limited to Europe.
Etymology
Origin of Dryopithecus
< New Latin (1856) < Greek drŷ ( s ) tree, oak + -o- -o- + píthēkos monkey
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In the Dryopithecus, the cusps had already expanded so that they met over the grooves, causing "tunnels," which are the potent causes of tooth decay in modern man.
From Time Magazine Archive
Dryopithecus, a big forest ape that lived in the Siwalik hills of India in Miocene times, before the Glacial Age, is the common ancestor of man, the gorilla, the chimpanzee, and other primates.
From Time Magazine Archive
Much later—by 14 million years ago—the Dryopithecus line had split into three branches.
From Time Magazine Archive
The general pattern seemed closely related to the dentition of Dryopithecus, a celebrated extinct ape.
From Time Magazine Archive
Among these residents of early Europe was at least one representative of the anthropoid apes, the fossil species known as Dryopithecus, from the middle Miocene deposits of St. Gaudens, France.
From Man And His Ancestor A Study In Evolution by Morris, Charles
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
