̷ ̷ˌ ̷ ̷(ˌ) ̷ ̷pə̇ˈthēkəs, -ˈpithikəs noun
Usage: capitalized
Etymology: New Latin, from Latin australis southern + New Latin -o- + -pithecus — more at austral
: a genus of extinct generalized anthropoid apes (family Pongidae) known chiefly from skulls from the middle Pleistocene or possibly Upper Pliocene deposits of southern Africa which are all essentially apelike though showing advances towards the hominid condition in cranial capacity, in the form of the dental arch, and in dentition and that is usually regarded as too recent to have been ancestral to man — see australopithecinae