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hominin

American  
[hom-uh-nin] / ˈhɒm ə nɪn /

noun

Anthropology, Zoology.
  1. any member of the group consisting of all modern and extinct humans and their immediate ancestors, specifically members of the tribe Hominini.


Etymology

Origin of hominin

First recorded in 1985–90; from New Latin Hominīnī, equivalent to Latin homin- (stem of homō ) “human being, man” + -īnī (plural of the adjective suffix -īnus indicating origin or affiliation); see origin at Homo ( def. ), -ine 1 ( def. ) )


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Example Sentences

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Archaeologists from La Trobe University have described 18 newly published hominin fossils from South Africa, including a second skull fragment belonging to Homo erectus.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026

"Each site represents a snapshot of our past, and we are quickly building a photo album with several different windows to hominin anatomy, locomotion, behavior, and environments during the Early Pleistocene," says Hatala.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 30, 2026

The new discovery is part of a much larger collection of hominin footprints found in ancient lakeshore environments around Lake Turkana.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 30, 2026

That matters because the environment may help explain how several hominin lineages survived at the same time.

From Science Daily ● May 16, 2026

It also noted that as many as four hominin lineages may have lived in eastern Africa between 3.0 and 2.5 million years ago: early Homo, Paranthropus, A. garhi, and the Ledi Geraru Australopithecus.

From Science Daily ● May 16, 2026

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