ur-ancestor

plural ur-ancestors · alternative Ur-ancestor

1. An original ancestor; proto-ancestor.

   These two lineages converged somewhere in the late Paleozoic or early Triassic in a common “Ur-ancestor.”

   2011, Dr. Gareth Dyke, Gary Kaiser, Living Dinosaurs: The Evolutionary History of Modern Birds

   2 more examples

   Often the ancestors were asked to intercede with the being who wielded the greatest power of all over the Shang people, the ur-ancestor known as the “Lord on High” (shangdi).

   2003, Confucius, translated by Edward Slingerland, Analects: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries, translation of original in Old Chinese

   In both, the first awareness of other creatures by the ur-ancestor (and therefore the first true self-consciousness) arrives through a feeling of a crowd on the skin.

   2006, Lesley Brill, Crowds, Power, and Transformation in Cinema

plural Ur-ancestors

1. alternativeAlternative form of ur-ancestor.