genus homo

Homo is the genus that includes modern humans and their close relatives. The genus is estimated to be between 1.5 and 2.5 million years old. All species except Homo sapiens (modern humans) are extinct. Homo neanderthalensis, traditionally considered the last surviving relative, died out 24,000 years ago while a recent discovery suggests that another species, Homo floresiensis, may have lived as recently as 12,000 years ago.

A minority of zoologists consider that the two species of chimpanzees (usually treated in the genus Pan), and maybe the gorillas (usually treated in the genus Gorilla) should also be included in the genus based on genetic similarities. Most scientists argue that chimpanzees and gorillas have too many anatomical differences between themselves and humans to be part of Homo. Given the large number of morphological similarities exhibited, Homo is closely related to several extinct Hominin genera, most notably Kenyanthropus, Paranthropus and Australopithecus. As of 2007, there is no universally accepted recognition of which taxa Homo radiated from.

The word homo is Latin for "man", in the original sense of "human being", or "person". The word "human" itself is from Latin humanus, an adjective cognate to homo, both derived from Proto-Indo-European language dhǵhem- "earth"[1]. Cf. Hebrew adam, meaning "human", cognate to adamah, meaning "ground". (And cf. Latin humus, meaning "soil".) Both homo/humanus/humus and adam/adamah share a conjectured Nostratic superroot, ad-ham-.

Species

• †Homo helmei discovered 1935
  • †Homo helmei florisbad (Florisbad Man)
• †Homo njarasensis discovered 1938
• †Homo habilis (Handy Man) discovered 1964
  • †KNM-ER 1813¹
  • †OH 7 (Jonny's child)
• †Homo rudolfensis (Rudolf Man) discovered 1986
  • †KNM-ER 1470
• †Homo ergaster (Working Man) discovered 1975
  • †Homo ergaster groves
  • †KNM-ER 992 discovered 1992
• †Homo erectus or Archanthropus (Upright Man) discovered by Dubois, 1892
  • †Homo erectus capensis discovered by Broom & Robinson, 1949
  • †Homo erectus erectus discovered by Dubois, 1892-1894
  • †Homo erectus javensis or Pithecanthropus erectus (Java Man) discovered by von Koenigswald, 1936
  • †Homo erectus hexianensis
  • †Homo erectus lantianensis discovered 1964
  • †Homo erectus leakey discovered by Heberer, 1963
  • †Homo erectus mauritanicus discovered by Arambourg, 1954
  • †Homo erectus modjokertensis discovered von Koenigswald, 1936
  • †Homo erectus paleojavanicus sangiranensis or Meganthropus paleojavanicus discovered by Sartono, 1976
  • †Homo erectus pekinensis or Sinanthropus pekinensis (Peking Man) discovered by Black & Zdansky, 1927
  • †Homo erectus petraloniensis 1986
  • †Homo erectus soloensis or Javanthropus soloensis
  • †Homo erectus trigliensis 1966
  • †Homo erectus trinilis
  • †OH 9 (Chellean man)
• †Homo atlanthropus (Atlantos Man)
  • †Homo atlanthropus algericus (Algeria Atlantos Man)
  • †Homo atlanthropus mauritanicus (Mauritania Atlantos Man)
• †Homo floresiensis (Flores Man — discovered 2003-2004. Species status remains under debate)
  • †LB1 (Hobbit Man)
• †Homo rhodesiensis (Rhodesia Man) discovered 1921
  • †Homo rhodesiensis kabwe
• †Homo georgicus (Georgia Man, discovered 2002-2003)
  • †D211
  • †D2280
  • †D2282
  • †D2600
  • †D2700
  • †D2735
• †Homo antecessor (Predecessor Man)
  • †Homo antecessor castros
• †Homo cepranensis (Ceprano Man) discovered 2003
  • †Homo cepranensis ceprano
• †Homo heidelbergensis (Heidelberg Man) discovered 1908
  • †Homo heidelbergensis mauer
• †Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthal Man) discovered 1864
  • †Neandertal (Neanderthal Man)
• Homo sapiens
  • †Homo sapien archaic (most ancient wise man) discovered 2003
  • †Homo sapiens idaltu (elderly wise man — or Herto man; discovered 1997)
  • †Homo sapiens fossilis (fossil wise man) discovered 1869
  • †Homo sapiens steinheimensis discovered by Berckhemer, 1934
  • Homo sapiens sapiens (Wise Man) discovered 1758
    • †Homo sapiens sapiens palestinus or Cro-Magnon (Wise Man or Palestinian man; early humans) discovered by McCown and Keith, 1932
    • Human (Wise Man; modern humans)

1. All new discovered subspecies still have not names, only classification numbers.

H. heidelbergensis and H. neanderthalensis are closely related to each other and have been considered to be subspecies of H. sapiens, but analysis of mitochondrial DNA from Homo neanderthalensis fossils shows that H. neanderthalensis humans and Neanderthals diverged approximately 400,000 years ago ^{[[#wp-_note-Unclear article that seems to indicate that H. neanderthalensis are more closely related to chimps than H. Sapiens are|[1]]]} H. rhodesiensis and H. cepranensis are also more closely related to each other than to the other species.

References

• Serre et al. (2004). "No evidence of Neandertal mtDNA contribution to early modern humans". PLoS Biology 2 (3): 313–7. PMID 15024415. 

External links

Wikispecies has information related to:

Homo

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of

Introduction to Paleoanthropology

• Hominid species
• Mikko's Phylogeny archive

The great apes
Extant genera	Pongo · Gorilla · Pan · Homo
Extant species	Bornean Orangutan · Sumatran Orangutan · Western Gorilla · Eastern Gorilla · Common Chimpanzee · Bonobo · Human
Great ape study	Aquatic ape hypothesis · Ape language · Ape Trust · Dian Fossey · Birutė Galdikas · Jane Goodall · Chimpanzee genome project · Human genome project
Legal status	Personhood · Research ban · Declaration · Kinshasa Declaration · Great Ape Project · Survival Project
See also...	Bushmeat · Ape extinction · List of notable apes · Human evolution

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