Kenyapithecus

[ ken-yuh-pith-i-kuhs, -puh-thee-kuhs, keen- ]

noun

1. a genus of fossil hominoids of middle Miocene age found in Kenya and having large molars, small incisors, and powerful chewing muscles.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Kenyapithecus¹

1960–65; < New Latin, equivalent to Kenya Kenya + pithēcus ape < Greek píthēkos

Example Sentences

Now famed Kenya-born Anthropologist Louis Leakey has evidence that a manlike creature he has named Kenyapithecus africanus roamed over eastern Africa concurrently with apes 20 million years ago.

From Time Magazine Archive

Leakey actually fabricated Kenyapithecus africanus from bone fragments that he and other scientists had dug from the ground as long ago as 1947.

From Time Magazine Archive

Applying 14 standard tests of the shape and size of jawbones and teeth to these long-ignored bone fragments, Leakey concluded that their characteristics were definitely more manlike than apelike, and reclassified them as Kenyapithecus africanus.

From Time Magazine Archive

Kenyapithecus' chin projected slightly to the front of its teeth; an ape's chin recedes behind its teeth.

From Time Magazine Archive

Unlike the rectangular, one-rooted molars of apelike creatures, for example, the Kenyapithecus' molars were triangular and had two roots.

From Time Magazine Archive