paleosubspecies

English

Etymology

From paleo- +‎ subspecies.

Noun

paleosubspecies (plural paleosubspecies)

1. A paleospecies that is considered a subspecies of an existing species, usually considered the immediate ancestor of the existing species.
   • 1984, Fred H. Smith, Frank Spencer, The Origins of Modern Humans, page 448:

     The fact is that apart from hominids and the two genera discussed above , fossil histories of paleosubspecies are virtually un known [ Van Valen , 1966 ].

   • 1991, Katherine Ann Manley-Buser, A Heterochronic Study of the Hominoid Foot, page 45:

     The paleosubspecies had larger dentition than that found in extant orangutans ( Hooijer 1948 ; Morbeck and Zihlman 1988; Smith and Pilbeam 1980) and are thought to have been somewhat larger in body size than either extant subspecies, or of similar body size but more megadont than either extant subspecies (Hooijer 1948; Smith and Pilbeam 1980; Tuttle 1975).

   • 1998, Steven D. Emslie, Avian Community, Climate, and Sea-level Changes in the Plio-Pleistocene of the Florida Peninsula, page 46:

     Thus, all fossil material is considered here to represent the living species M. chimachima, but may be recognizable as a large, temporal paleosubspecies, M. chimachima readei.