Hominid

About Hominid


A 'hominid' is any member of the biological family 'Hominidae' (the "great apes"), including the extinct and extant humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans. This classification has been revised several times in the last few decades. These various revisions have led to a varied use of the word "hominid": The original meaning of Hominidae referred only to the modern meaning of Hominina, including only humans and their closest relatives. The meaning of the taxon changed gradually, leading to the modern meaning of "hominid" in which it includes all great apes.
The primatological term is easily confused with a number of very similar words:

★ A hominoid is a member of the superfamily Hominoidea: extant members are the lesser apes (gibbons) and great apes.

★ A hominid is a member of the family 'Hominidae': all of the great apes.

★ A hominine is a member of the subfamily Homininae: gorillas, chimpanzees, humans (excludes orangutans).

★ A hominin is a member of the tribe Hominini: chimpanzees and humans.

★ A hominan is a member of the sub-tribe Hominina: modern humans and their extinct relatives.

★ A human is a member of ''Homo sapiens sapiens'' or ''Homo sapiens idaltu'' and might also be used to refer to any extinct member of the genus ''Homo'' or members from other hominan genera. In more hypothetical and fictional contexts it might also refer to a being out of an other evolutionary lineage who looks very similar to a member of ''Homo sapiens sapiens''.

★ A humanoid is a vaguely human-shaped entity.
Certain morphological characteristics are still used conventionally to support the idea that hominid should only denote humans and human ancestors, namely bipedalism and large brains. These points of departure between human beings and the other great apes are important, but according to geneticically based taxonomic classification, is not enough to divide us into separate families. Genetics, rather than morphology, as the standard is now generally accepted as the critical test of relatedness and in this respect humans and the other great apes ought to be of the same family. The terms hominid and "great ape" are now effectively coterminous. Anthropologists use the term to mean humans and their direct and near-direct bipedal ancestors. Whether the critical standard should be strictly genetic or morphologic, or a combination of the two is yet to be determined.

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