Loading...
Initial language selection is based on your web browser preferences.
The family Hominidae of order Primates includes the hominoids: the great apes. Evidence from the fossil record and from a comparison of human and chimpanzee DNA suggests that humans and chimpanzees diverged from a common hominoid ancestor approximately 6 million years ago. Several species evolved from the evolutionary branch that includes humans, although our species is the only surviving member. The term hominin is used to refer to those species that evolved after this split of the primate line, thereby designating species that are more closely related to humans than to chimpanzees. Hominins were predominantly bipedal and include those groups that likely gave rise to our species ‒ including Australopithecus, Homo habilis, and Homo erectus ‒ and those non-ancestral groups that can be considered “cousins” of modern humans, such as Neanderthals.
*LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS
CC licensed content, Shared previously, The Evolution of Primates, Authored by: OpenStax College. License: CC BY: Attribution. License Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/contents/J60E3NTA@4/The-Evolution-of-Primates*
