pithecanthropus

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the former genus Pithecanthropus, especially the Javan fossil hominins now generally classified as Homo erectus

   Older museum labels sometimes identify Java Man as Pithecanthropus erectus.

2. 2
   noun

   an individual assigned to that former genus, or historically a supposed form intermediate between apes and humans

   The lecturer explained that pithecanthropus is now a dated term in human paleontology.

New Latin Pithecanthropus, formed from Greek pithekos, 'ape,' and anthropos, 'human being': literally 'ape-human.' The name was used for a hypothetical human ancestor and later for the Java fossils named Pithecanthropus erectus; twentieth-century taxonomy placed those fossils in Homo erectus.

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