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'''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 '' "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-''.

Contents

Species

References

External links

Species

★ †''Homo habilis'' (Handy Man)

★ †''Homo rudolfensis'' (Rudolf Man)

★ †''Homo ergaster'' (Working Man)

★ †''Homo erectus'' (Upright Man)

★ †''Homo floresiensis'' (Flores Man — discovered 2003. Species status remains under debate.)

★ †''Homo antecessor'' (Predecessor Man)

★ †''Homo heidelbergensis'' (Heidelberg Man)

★ †''Homo neanderthalensis'' (Neanderthal Man)

★ †''Homo rhodesiensis'' (Rhodesia Man)

★ †''Homo cepranensis'' (Ceprano Man)

★ †''Homo georgicus'' (Georgia Man)

★ ''Homo sapiens''

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★ †''Homo sapiens idaltu'' (elderly wise man — discovered 1997)

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★ ''Homo sapiens sapiens'' (Wise Man; modern humans)
''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.^[1] ''H. rhodesiensis'' and ''H. cepranensis'' are also more closely related to each other than to the other species.

References

★ No evidence of Neandertal mtDNA contribution to early modern humans, Serre ''et al.'', , , PLoS Biology, 2004
1. Neanderthal DNA illuminates split with humans

External links

★ Hominid species

★ Mikko's Phylogeny archive