Hominini

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

iHominini
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Superfamily: Hominoidea
Family: Hominidae
Subfamily: Homininae
Tribe: Hominini
Gray, 1825
Genera

Subtribe Panina

Subtribe Hominina

Hominini is the tribe of Homininae that only includes humans (Homo), chimpanzees (Pan), and their extinct ancestors. Members of the tribe are called hominins (cf. Hominidae, "hominids").

The creation of this taxon is the result of the current idea that the least similar species of a trichotomy should be separated from the other two. Through DNA comparison, scientists believe they have determined that the Pan/Homo split happened about 5 to 7 million years ago.[1] It is interesting to note that no fossil species on the Pan side of the split have been determined; all of the extinct genera listed to the right are ancestral to Homo, or are offshoots of such. However, both Orrorin and Sahelanthropus existed around the time of the split, and so may be ancestral to both humans and chimpanzees.

In the proposal of Mann and Weiss (1996),[2] the tribe Hominini includes Pan as well as Homo as separate subtribes. Homo (and, by inference, all bipedal apes) is by itself only in the subtribe Hominina, while Pan is in the Panina subtribe.

Extant Hominoid family tree
Extant Hominoid family tree
Wikispecies has information related to:

[edit] See also


[edit] References

  1. ^ Scientists narrow time limits for human, chimp split. PhysOrg.com. Retrieved on 2005-12-21.
  2. ^ Mann, Alan and Mark Weiss (1996). "Hominoid Phylogeny and Taxonomy: a consideration of the molecular and Fossil Evidence in an Historical Perspective". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 5 (1): 169-181.