pongidn.adj.

1949 Q. Rev. Biol. 24 207/1 Probably the most salient weakness of the orthodox, anthropoid-ape theory is that it concentrates almost exclusively upon the resemblances between man and the anthropoids, the pongids or great apes in particular.

1963 New Scientist 27 June 737/1 Dr Leakey revealed that there were true pongids (apes) living in East Africa during the Miocene period.

1977 A. Hallam Planet Earth 284 The hominids are a family containing Man and his close relatives, distinct from the family of apes, the pongids.

2005 Libr. Jrnl. Rev. (Nexis) 1 June Renowned primatologist Galdikas..has written a timely, engaging, and authoritative overview of the four great apes: orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos. The fact that each of these pongids is now a vanishing animal, threatened with extinction, makes this detailed work an especially significant contribution.

1949 Q. Rev. Biol. 24 204/1 Probably the majority of recent students have regarded the human line of descent as having separated from the pongid or great-ape stock just before or at about the time that the latter split into its modern forms.

1983 E. C. Minkoff Evolutionary Biol. xxvii. 517/2 In most cases, but not all, the pongid condition is primitive and the hominid condition advanced.

2003 Independent (Nexis) 20 May Traditionally chimpanzees..have been classified as belonging to the pongid family..but the latest study by Morris Goodman of Wayne State University puts chimps close enough to humans for them to become practically indistinguishable.