hominin

Examples of hominin in the following topics:

• Early Human Evolution

  • Determining the true lines of descent in hominins is difficult.
  • In years past, when relatively few hominin fossils had been recovered, some scientists believed that considering them in order, from oldest to youngest, would demonstrate the course of evolution from early hominins to modern humans.
  • It may not have been a hominin.
  • Again, the status of this genus as a human ancestor is uncertain, but, given that it was bipedal, it was a hominin.
  • List the evolved physical traits used to differentiate hominins from other hominoids

• Early Homo

  • The most salient physiological development between the earlier hominin species and Homo is the increase in cranial capacity, although body size also increased in Homo erectus.
  • Hominins ranged much farther than did chimpanzees and gorillas.
  • Australopithecines were one of the first hominins to show increased neural capability .
  • However, this was shown to be incorrect: bipedality long antedated dramatic brain increases in hominins.
  • Homo erectus was the first of the hominins to leave Africa.

• Early Hominins

  • The hominin Australopithecus evolved 4 million years ago and is believed to be in the ancestral line of the genus Homo.
  • Australopithecus ("southern ape") is a genus of hominin that evolved in eastern Africa approximately 4 million years ago and became extinct about 2 million years ago.
  • Hominin footprints, similar to those of modern humans, found in Laetoli, Tanzania, are dated to 3.6 million years ago.
  • They show that hominins at the time of Australopithecus were walking upright.
  • These hominids became extinct more than 1 million years ago and are not thought to be ancestral to modern humans, but rather members of an evolutionary branch on the hominin tree that left no descendants.

• The Evolution of Humans

  • The first, between four and seven million years ago, consisted of the proto hominins Sahelanthropus, Orrorin and Ardipithecus.
  • Homo habilis, which used stone tools and had a brain about the size of a chimpanzee, was an early hominin in this period.
  • This idea was expanded in the aridity hypothesis, which posited that the savannah was expanding due to increasingly arid conditions resulting in hominin adaptation.
  • Thus, during periods of intense aridification, hominins also were pushed to evolve and adapt.
  • The social brain hypothesis states that improving cognitive capabilities would allow hominins to influence local groups and control resources.

• Genus Homo

  • However, H. habilis retained some features of older hominin species, such as long arms.
  • It is believed to have originated in East Africa and was the first hominin species to migrate out of Africa.
  • H. erectus was larger in size than earlier hominins, reaching heights up to 1.85 meters and weighing up to 65 kilograms, sizes similar to those of modern humans.
  • Artifacts found with fossils of H. erectus suggest that it was the first hominin to use fire, hunt, and have a home base.

• Homo sapiens

  • These early hominins stood about 1.79 m (5 ft 10 in).
  • In addition, it has been suggested that H. erectus may have been the first hominin to use rafts to travel over oceans.
  • Homo erectus is an extinct species of hominin that lived throughout most of the Pleistocene, with the earliest first fossil evidence dating to around 1.8 million years ago and the most recent to around 143,000 years ago

• Primates