Everything about Homo Genus totally explained
Homo is the
genus that includes
modern humans and their close relatives. The genus is estimated to be about 2.5 million years old, evolving from
Australopithecine ancestors with the appearance of
Homo habilis. Appearance of
Homo coincides with the first evidence of
stone tools (the
Oldowan industry), and thus by definition with the beginning of the
Lower Paleolithic.
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's 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 "earth"
(External Link
). Cf. Hebrew
adam, meaning "human", cognate to
adamah, meaning "ground". (And cf. Latin
humus, meaning "soil".)
Species
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 is more closely related to chimpanzees than
H. sapiens is, thereby suggesting that
H. sapiens is the more derived of the two.
H. rhodesiensis and
H. cepranensis are also more closely related to each other than to the other species.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Homo Genus'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://homo__genus.totallyexplained.com">Homo (genus) Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
