He also had a more human-like face with a nose that projected outwards and a larger braincase. New definitions. The most commonly used recent definitions are: Hominid — the group consisting of all modern and extinct Great Apes that is, modern humans , chimpanzees, gorillas and orang-utans plus all their immediate ancestors.
Related factsheets Homo erectus , Homo habilis , Homo heidelbergensis , Homo antecessor , Homo rudolfensis , Homo floresiensis , Homo eragaster , Homo naledia , Homo neanderthalensis , Homo sapiens Australopithecus sediba , Australopithecus africanus , Australopithecus bahrelghazali , Australopithecus afarensis , Australopithecus anamensis , Australopithecus garhi Ardipithecus kadabba , Ardipithecus ramidus.
Close Modal Dialog. Stay in the know Uncover the secrets of the Australian Museum with our monthly emails. Sign up today. How do we know what they ate? Why have these changes occurred? Dental arcade of an early hominids. Toggle Caption The dental arcade is the shape made by the rows of teeth in the upper jaw. This illustration shows the dental arcade of an early Homo sapien top and Australopithecus africanus bottom.
Hominid legs. Toggle Caption Comparison between the legs of a modern human, Australopithecus afarensis and a modern chimpanzee, showing the differences in upright walking abilities. Back to top. Australopithecus afarensis 3. Kenyanthropus platyops 3. Australopithecus africanus 3 to 2 mya. Australopithecus aethiopicus 2. Australopithecus garhi 2.
Australopithecus boisei 2. Homo habilis 2. Homo erectus 1. Australopithecus robustus 1. Homo heidelbergensis to tya. Homo neanderthalensis to 30 tya. Homo sapiens tya to present. At first glance, it seems there are far more questions than answers regarding the relationships among species on the hominid family tree. The graphic above plots 15 different species along a timeline spanning 6 million years, and it depicts, with connecting lines, how some scientists think these species relate to one another.
A few relationships are clear. For instance, there is consensus among scientists that the three most recent species of hominids Homo heidelbergensis , Homo neanderthalensis , and modern humans, Homo sapiens all evolved from an earlier species called Homo erectus. The evidence centers on the extent of sexual dimorphism — differences in size based on sex -- that existed among these early primates and what it suggests about the social structure of these creatures.
In a paper published in the August 5 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , researchers at Kent State University reported that remains of both male and female specimens of Australopithecus afarensis showed fewer differences based on size than most paleontologists had earlier expected.
Gorillas, orangutans and baboons are known to have social structures built around fierce competition among males. In a commentary in the journal, Clark Spencer Larsen , distinguished professor and chair of anthropology at Ohio State , argued that the Kent State study was the best to date at linking sexual dimorphism in early hominids to their probable social structure.
Larsen believes that this male cooperation is the product of evolutionary change.
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