Sivapithecus

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An extinct genus of Miocene ape whose fossils were found in Asia and Africa, considered a relative of the orangutan lineage
2. A prehistoric primate genus from the Miocene epoch, known from fossil remains discovered across parts of Asia and Africa
3. Fossil ape genus that lived millions of years ago during the Miocene, representing an early branch of the great ape family tree

Etymology: Sivapithecus is a fossil ape genus, and its name is a modern scientific coinage rather than an ancient one. The English-language naming was made in 1910 by the paleontologist Guy Ellcock Pilgrim, who described fossils from the Siwalik Hills of northern India and Pakistan. The name combines "Siva," for the Hindu god Shiva, whose name was tied to the region's Siwalik deposits, with the Greek "pithekos," meaning "ape." Greek "pithekos" is the same root that gives English "anthropoid" and "pithecine" in later scientific use. Pilgrim's choice of name was a deliberate nod to the Indian setting, and the Siwalik Hills, sometimes called the Siwaliks, are themselves named after Shiva. The "pithecus" ending is a Latinized form of the Greek word, the usual style for naming fossil primates in the early twentieth century.