AUSTRALOPITHECUS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Australopithecus mean? 

• AUSTRALOPITHECUS (noun)
  The noun AUSTRALOPITHECUS has 1 sense:

1. extinct genus of African hominid

  Familiarity information: AUSTRALOPITHECUS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AUSTRALOPITHECUS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Extinct genus of African hominid

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

Australopithecus; genus Australopithecus

Hypernyms ("Australopithecus" is a kind of...):

mammal genus (a genus of mammals)

Meronyms (members of "Australopithecus"):

australopithecine (any of several extinct humanlike bipedal primates with relatively small brains of the genus Australopithecus; from 1 to 4 million years ago)

Australopithecus afarensis (fossils found in Ethiopia; from 3.5 to 4 million years ago)

Lucy (incomplete skeleton of female found in eastern Ethiopia in 1974)

Australopithecus africanus (gracile hominid of southern Africa; from about 3 million years ago)

Australopithecus boisei (large-toothed hominid of eastern Africa; from 1 to 2 million years ago)

Australopithecus robustus (large-toothed hominid of southern Africa; from 1.5 to 2 million years ago; formerly Paranthropus)

Holonyms ("Australopithecus" is a member of...):

family Hominidae; Hominidae (modern man and extinct immediate ancestors of man)

 Context examples 

In 2016, researchers working in the Afar region of Ethiopia, some 35 miles away from Hadar, the region in which Lucy, the famous Australopithecus afarensis human ancestor, was found, discovered a nearly complete cranium of another early human ancestor, Australopithecus anamensis, that dates to 3.8 million years ago.

(3.8-million-year-old fossil cranium unveils more about human ancestry, National Science Foundation)