| primate | The order of animals that includes lemurs, tarsiers, monkeys, apes, and humans.
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| Hominoidea | The taxonomic group (family) that includes the human and ape members of the primates, both fossil and modern forms.
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| dryopithecine | The generic term for the Miocene fossil ancestor of both the living apes and modern humans, found in Africa, Asia, and Europe.
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| paleoanthropology | The branch of anthropology that combines archaeology and physical anthropology to study the biological and behavioral remains of the early hominins.
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| fossil | The mineralized bone of an extinct animal.
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| bonobo | A small species of chimpanzee, closely related to humans.
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| hominoid | A descriptive term for any human or ape, past or present, characterized by teeth shape, the absence of a tail, and swinging arms.
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| hominid | An obsolete term that refers to the human members of the primates, both fossil and modern forms.
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| hominin | A current term that refers to the human, chimp, and gorilla members of the primates, both fossil and modern forms.
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| sexual dimorphism | A difference in size between the male and female members of a species.
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| Australopithecine | The generic term for the various species of the genus Australopithecus, including A. ramidus, A. afarensis, and A. africanus.
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| locomotion | A method of animal movement, such as bipedalism.
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| Paranthropus | Genus of early hominins, contemporary with Australopithecus, that includes boisei and robustus as species.
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| Plio/Pleistocene | A term used to describe the time at the end of the Pliocene and beginning of the Pleistocene when a variety of early hominins are known.
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| polygynous | Having more than one mate.
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| relative dating | A technique used to estimate the antiquity of archaeological materials, generally based on association with materials of known age or simply to say that one item is younger or older than another.
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| association | The relationship between items in an archaeological site. Items in association are found close together and/or in the same layer or deposit.
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| absolute dating | A method of assigning archaeological dates in calendar years so that an age in actual number of years is known or can be estimated.
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| isotope | One of several atomic states of an element; for example, carbon occurs as 12C, 13C, and 14C, also known as carbon-14 or radiocarbon.
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| isotopic technique | A method for absolute dating that relies on known rates of decay in radioactive isotopes, especially carbon, potassium, and uranium.
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| radiopotassium | An absolute dating technique based on the principle of decay of the radioactive isotope of potassium, 40K. Also called potassium-argon dating.
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| half-life | A measure of the rate of decay in radioactive materials; half the radioactive material will disappear within the period of one half-life.
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| bipedalism | The human method of locomotion, walking on two legs.
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| breccia | The accumulated materials from cave deposits that harden into a conglomerate rock, including sediments, rocks, and animal bones.
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| cutmark | A trace left on bone by a stone or metal tool used in butchering a carcass.
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| Oldowan | The name given to the assemblages of early pebble tools and flakes belonging to the Basal Paleolithic, derived from Olduvai.
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| percussion flaking | A technique for producing stone artifacts by striking or knapping crystalline stone with a hard or soft hammer.
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| flake | A type of stone artifact produced by removing a piece from a core through chipping.
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| core | The stone from which other pieces or flakes are removed. Core tools are shaped by the removal of flakes.
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| hammerstone | A stone used to knock flakes from cores.
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| débitage | A term referring to all the pieces of shatter and flakes produced and not used when stone tools are made.
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| flint | A fine-grained, crystalline stone that fractures in a regular pattern, producing sharp-edged flakes.
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| flintknapping | The process of making chipped stone artifacts; the striking of stone with a hard or soft hammer.
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| assemblage | The set of artifacts and other remains found at an archaeological site or within a specific level of a site.
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| lithic | Pertaining to stone, or rock.
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| unifacial | A term describing a flaked stone tool in which only one face or side is retouched to make a sharp edge.
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| bifacial | A flaked stone tool in which both faces or sides are retouched to make a thinner tool.
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| retouch | The shaping or sharpening of stone artifacts through percussion or pressure flaking.
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| handedness | Preferential use of the right or the left hand.
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| tool | Any equipment, weapon, or object made by humans to change their environment.
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| estrus | The cycle of female sexual receptivity in many species of animals.
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| extrasomatic | Literally, "outside the body"; nonbiological, nongenetic.
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