An extinct hominid postulated from bones found in China in the late 1920s and originally designated Sinanthropus pekinensis in the belief that it represented a species evolutionarily preceding humans. Sinanthropus is now classified as Homo erectus.
Also called Peking man
See more at Homo erectus
From New Latin (1927), equivalent to Sin- “Chinese” + Greek ánthrōpos “man”; see origin at Sino-
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The species were originally described as Sinanthropus pekinensis.
From National Geographic
Subsequently, one Sinanthropus find after another was made at Choukoutien, and the old Peking Man's anatomy came to be fairly well known.
From Time Magazine Archive
It is not certain that Sinanthropus is older than Pithecanthropus, although the workers in China think so.
From Time Magazine Archive
The late Dr. Davidson Black, who was in charge of the Choukoutien site when the Sinanthropus find was made, noticed how much the skull resembled that of the Java Man.
From Time Magazine Archive
He made his reputation in 1929 when he discovered the skull of Sinanthropus, the Peking man, who lived half a million years ago.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
