Ardipithecus

[ ahr-di-pith-i-kuhs, ‐pi-thee-kuhs ]

noun

1. a genus of extinct hominine of the late Miocene and early Pliocene epochs, known from remains found in northeastern Ethiopia in the 1990s: its two named species are A. ramidus and A. kadabba .

Word History and Origins

Origin of Ardipithecus¹

First recorded in 1990–95; from New Latin, from Afar ard, ardi “earth” (from Arabic ʔarḍ ) + Latin pithēcus “ape” (from Greek píthēkos )

Example Sentences

They found a remarkably complete but crushed partial skeleton they named Ardipithecus ramidus, dated to 4.4 million years ago.

From Science Magazine

Nearby, Haile-Selassie later found the lower jaw, teeth, and disarticulated bones of the hands, feet, and arm of Ardipithecus kadabba, dated to 5.8 million years ago.

From Science Magazine

One, the Burtele foot, named after the 3.4-million-year-old layer of sediment in which it was found, lived at the same time as A. afarensis but is more primitive, with an opposable big toe like that of tree-climbing Ardipithecus.

From Science Magazine

Ardipithecus, he says, “makes Lucy and Co. downright humanlike in comparison.”

From Science Magazine

“Clickbait,” said Tim D. White, a paleoanthropologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who is best known for leading the team that discovered Ardipithecus ramidus, a 4.4 million-year-old likely human forebear.

From New York Times