AUSTRALOPITHECUS AFARENSIS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Australopithecus afarensis mean? 

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

1. fossils found in Ethiopia; from 3.5 to 4 million years ago

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• AUSTRALOPITHECUS AFARENSIS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Fossils found in Ethiopia; from 3.5 to 4 million years ago

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

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

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

Instance hyponyms:

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

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

Australopithecus; genus Australopithecus (extinct genus of African hominid)

 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)