Crossword clues for australopithecine
The Collaborative International Dictionary
australopithecine \australopithecine\ adj. 1. of or pertaining to the genus Australopithecus.
australopithecine \australopithecine\ n. 1. any of several extinct humanlike small-brained bipedal primates of the genus Australopithecus; they existed from 1 to 4 million years ago.
Wiktionary
a. (context archaeology anthropology paleonotology English) Of or pertaining to these creatures n. (context anthropology paleonotology English) Any of several extinct hominid primates, of the genus ''Australopithecus'', from the Pleistocene period. (from 20th c.)
WordNet
adj. of or belonging to the hominid genus Australopithecus
n. any of several extinct humanlike small-brained bipedal primates of the genus Australopithecus; from 1 to 4 million years ago
Wikipedia
Australopithecines are generally all species in the related Australopithecus and Paranthropus genera, and it typically includes Kenyanthropus, Ardipithecus, and Praeanthropus. All these related species are now sometimes collectively classified as a subtribe of the Hominini tribe called Australopithecina. They are the extinct, close relatives of humans and, with the extant genus Homo, comprise the human clade. Members of the human clade, i.e. the Hominini after the split from the chimpanzees, are now called hominins (see Hominidae; terms "hominids" and hominins).
The terms australopithecine, et al., come from a former classification as members of a distinct subfamily, the Australopithecinae. Members of Australopithecus are sometimes referred to as the gracile australopithecines, while Paranthropus are called the "robust australopithecines".
The australopithecines occurred in the Plio-Pleistocene era and were bipedal, and they were dentally similar to humans, but with a brain size not much larger than that of modern apes, with lesser encephalization than in the genus Homo. Humans (genus Homo) may have descended from australopithecine ancestors and the genus Ardipithecus is a possible ancestor of the australopithecines.
Usage examples of "australopithecine".
Tuttle of the University of Chicago, fossil foot bones of the known australopithecines of 3.
Today Australopithecus prometheus is classified, along with the Taung and Sterkfontein specimens, as Australopithecus africanus, distinct from the robust australopithecines of Kromdraai and Swartkrans.
Australopithecus africanus, distinct from the robust australopithecines of Kromdraai and Swartkrans.
What seems certain is that about five million years ago, there was an abundance of apelike animals, the gracile Australopithecines, who walked on two feet and had brain volumes of about 500 cubic centimeters, some 100 cc more than the brain of a modern chimpanzee.
By three million years ago, there was a variety of bipedal fellows with a wide range of cranial volumes, some considerably larger than the East African gracile Australopithecines of a few million years earlier.
The gracile Australopithecines, judging again from their teeth, probably ate meat as well as vegetables.
He was larger, both in body and in brain weight, than either of the Australopithecines, and had a ratio of brain to body weight about the same as that of the gracile Australopithecines.
The gracile Australopithecines were also contemporaries of Homo habilis but much more ancient.
There is no way to explain the discontinuous appearance of stone tools unless the Australopithecines had educational institutions.
We see from the table that the ratio of body to brain weight is, within the variance of measurement, roughly the same for the gracile Australopithecines, Homo habilis, Homo erectus and modern humans.
They did not make it impossible for the collateral descendants of their australopithecines to learn that the Heechee had visited their area.
Heechee, thinking that the australopithecines they discovered when they first visited the Earth would ultimately evolve a technological civilizatron, decided to preserve a colony of them in a sort of zoo.
He visited Earth and met the australopithecines, he helped chart gas clouds and quasars, he ferried crews to outposts and construction projects.
The prints had been made when two australopithecines had walked through muddy ash following a volcanic eruption.
They are assumed to be australopithecines because there are no other known candidates.