paleoanthropology

noun pa·leo·an·thro·pol·o·gy \ ˌpā-lē-ō-ˌan(t)-thrə-ˈpä-lə-jē , especially British ˌpa- \

Definition of paleoanthropology

: a branch of anthropology dealing with fossil hominids

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paleoanthropological

play \ˌpā-lē-ō-ˌan(t)-thrə-pə-ˈlä-ji-kəl, especially British ˌpa-\ adjective

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paleoanthropologist

play \ˌpā-lē-ō-ˌan(t)-thrə-ˈpä-lə-jist, especially British ˌpa-\ noun

Recent Examples of paleoanthropology from the Web

With no artist statement forthcoming from our Stone Age ancestors, the show takes on a strange admixture of science and guesswork, paleoanthropology and wishful thinking.

— jason farago, New York Times, "Was Australopithecus an Artist?," 1 Feb. 2018
Now that the researchers have published their study of Engare Sero’s enigmatic geology, Pobiner and Harcourt-Smith are hopeful that the paleoanthropology analysis isn’t far behind.

— robert clark, National Geographic, "Treasure Trove of Ancient Human Footprints Found Near Volcano," 10 Oct. 2016
The Power of Protein The study of ancient proteins, paleoproteomics is an emerging interdisciplinary field that draws from chemistry and molecular biology as much as paleontology, paleoanthropology and archaeology.

— gemma tarlach, Discover Magazine, "Proteomics: Moving Beyond DNA to Study the Past," 15 Aug. 2017
For 40 years Piltdown Man existed as a legitimate fossil, which had a huge influence in the direction of paleoanthropology.

— National Geographic, "Meet 7 Celebrity Fossils and Find Out What Made Them Famous," 25 Sep. 2016
An evolution of ideas sheds new light The Jebel Irhoud fossils themselves are an example of how paleoanthropology has evolved over the decades.

— eva botkin-kowacki, The Christian Science Monitor, "Just how Earth-shattering are those 300,000-year-old Homo sapiens fossils?," 8 June 2017
This neither proves the the hypothesis or conclusively disproves it—but that’s the challenge of working with scant evidence in paleoanthropology.

— sarah zhang, The Atlantic, "A New Addition to the Human Family Tree is Surprisingly Young," 9 May 2017
The discovery spoke to the big question confronting British paleoanthropology.

— National Geographic, "Meet 7 Celebrity Fossils and Find Out What Made Them Famous," 25 Sep. 2016

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'paleoanthropology.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.