Dryopithecus

[ drahy-oh-pith-i-kuhs, -puh-thee- ]

noun

1. an extinct genus of generalized hominoids that lived in Europe and Africa during the Miocene Epoch and whose members are characterized by small molars and incisors.
2. one of the four subgenera of this genus, limited to Europe.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Dryopithecus¹

< New Latin (1856) < Greek drŷ ( s ) tree, oak + -o- -o- + píthēkos monkey

Example Sentences

The ancestral chimpanzee-gorilla-man stock appears to be represented by the Upper Miocene genera Sivapithecus and Dryopithecus, the former more closely allied to, or directly ancestral to, the Hominidæ, the latter to the chimpanzee and gorilla.

From Project Gutenberg

Among these residents of early Europe was at least one representative of the anthropoid apes, the fossil species known as Dryopithecus, from the middle Miocene deposits of St. Gaudens, France.

From Project Gutenberg

Dryopithecus was, also, of large size, equalling Man in stature, and apparently living amongst the trees and feeding upon fruits.

From Project Gutenberg

The form which may have been in our line of descent, the Dryopithecus, later appears to have become extinct.

From Project Gutenberg

As the trunks of oaks are common in the lignite beds in which it lay, it has received the generic name of Dryopithecus.

From Project Gutenberg