Homo
Sign in to saveHomo () is a genus of great ape (family Hominidae) that emerged from the early homininian genus Australopithecus, encompassing a single extant species, Homo sapiens (modern humans), along with a number of extinct species (e.g. Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis) classified as either ancestral or closely related to modern humans, collectively called archaic humans. Homo, together with the genus Paranthropus, is probably most closely related to the species Australopithecus africanus within Australopithecus.'' The closest living relatives of Homo are of the hominin genus Pan (chimpanzees and
AI overview
Homo is the genus of great apes that includes modern humans (Homo sapiens) as well as extinct human species like Neanderthals and Homo erectus that were our ancestors or close relatives. It matters because studying Homo helps us understand human evolution and our place among other primates, since our genus emerged from earlier hominins like Australopithecus millions of years ago.
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Taxonomy · GBIF
GENUS
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumChordata
- ClassMammalia
- OrderPrimates
- FamilyHominidae
via GBIF · CC0
Article
13 sectionsContents
- Names and taxonomy
- Evolution
- ''Australopithecus'' and the appearance of ''Homo''
- ''Homo habilis''
- ''Homo erectus''
- Phylogeny
- Dispersal
- List of lineages
- See also
- Footnotes
- References
- Bibliography
- External links
Homo () is a genus of great ape (family Hominidae) that emerged from the early homininian genus Australopithecus, encompassing a single extant species, Homo sapiens (modern humans), along with a number of extinct species (e.g. Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis) classified as either ancestral or closely related to modern humans, collectively called archaic humans. Homo, together with the genus Paranthropus, is probably most closely related to the species Australopithecus africanus within Australopithecus.'' The closest living relatives of Homo are of the hominin genus Pan (chimpanzees and bonobos), with the ancestors of Pan and Homo estimated to have diverged around 5.7–11 million years ago during the Late Miocene.
The oldest member of the genus is Homo habilis, with fossil records of just over 2 million years ago. H. erectus appeared about 2 million years ago and spread throughout Africa (debatably as another species called Homo ergaster) and Eurasia in several migrations. The species was adaptive and successful, and persisted for more than a million years before gradually diverging into new species around 500,000 years ago.