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• Pithecanthropus
  Pithecanthropus

  noun

  a former genus of extinct hominins whose members have now been assigned to the proposed species Homo erectus.
• pithecanthropus
  pithecanthropus

  noun

  any primitive apelike man of the former genus Pithecanthropus, now included in the genus Homo See Java man Peking man

Pithecanthropus

American  

[pith-i-kan-thruh-puhs, -kuhn-throh-puhs] / ˌpɪθ ɪˈkæn θrə pəs, -kənˈθroʊ pəs /

noun

1. a former genus of extinct hominins whose members have now been assigned to the proposed species Homo erectus.

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pithecanthropus British  

/ ˌpɪθɪkænˈθrəʊpəs, -ˈkænθrə- /

noun

1. any primitive apelike man of the former genus Pithecanthropus, now included in the genus Homo See Java man Peking man

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pithecanthropus Scientific  

/ pĭth′ĭ-kăn′thrə-pəs,-kăn-thrō′pəs /

1. An extinct hominid postulated from bones found in Java in 1891 and originally designated Pithecanthropus erectus because it was thought to represent a species evolutionarily between apes and humans. Pithecanthropus is now classified as Homo erectus.

2. Also called Java man

3. See more at Homo erectus

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Other Word Forms

• pithecanthropine
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of Pithecanthropus

First recorded in 1870–75; from New Latin: literally “ape-man”; from Greek píthēk(os) “ape” + Greek ánthrōpos “human being”

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Pithecanthropus pithecanthropus

But after further inspection, he changed the name to Pithecanthropus erectus, an upright “ape-man.”

From New York Times ● Apr. 10, 2019

The original Pithecanthropus consisted of an apish skull, a very human thighbone, a few "ambiguous" teeth.

From Time Magazine Archive

The scientist quickly realized that he had in his hands one of the most important evolutionary finds since the discovery of Pithecanthropus erectus, the ape-man of Java.

From Time Magazine Archive

Professor Eugene Dubois, 82, Dutch anthropologist who in 1891 found the first skull of the Java ape man, concluded he had discovered the "missing link," called it Pithecanthropus erectus; in Haelen, Belgium.

From Time Magazine Archive

Undoubtedly, like the Pithecanthropus, he was a man without the tools of civilization, or at least had not developed far in this way.

From History of Human Society by Frank W. (Frank Wilson) Blackmar

The early haunt of the pithecanthropus was in the south of France, at Aix.

From Time Magazine Archive

In the museum, the clergyman remarks: "It is not certain that there has been much change in our intellectual and moral attainments since pithecanthropus dropped the first half of his name."

From Time Magazine Archive

It was, in short, the actual prototype of that hypothetical creature which Haeckel, in his genealogical tree, had christened pithecanthropus, the ape-man.

From A History of Science, Volume 5(of 5) Aspects Of Recent Science by Henry Smith Williams

With the utmost caution the pithecanthropus descended the tree upon the opposite side from the great nocturnal prowler, and, closely followed by Tarzan, moved silently away through the night across the plain.

From Tarzan the Terrible by Edgar Rice Burroughs

In his "Men of the Old Stone Age," Dr. Osborn puts the pithecanthropus, the Heidelberg man, the Piltdown man, and the Neanderthal man, on limbs which terminate abruptly as extinct races.

From The Evolution of Man Scientifically Disproved In 50 Arguments by William A. (William Asbury) Williams

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