1.   And Johanson, for one, believes the unlinking will continue as more and more hominid species are discovered.

2.   For two decades, afarensis stood alone as the earliest hominid species.

3.   Homo neanderthalensis was the last hominid species to rival our own.

4.   In the last six years, six new hominid species have been announced.

5.   It would be more surprising, he added, if Lucy had been alone as a hominid species through a long stretch of early human history.

6.   The bones probably belonged to an early member of Australopithecus africanus or another early hominid species, the paleontologists said.

7.   Those traits gave them powerful advantages over other hominid species that subsisted largely on vegetarian diets, he added.

8.   Senut said they represented a hominid species.