Homo
Homo (from Latin homō 'human') is a monotypic genus that emerged from the genus Australopithecus and encompasses the extant species Homo sapiens (modern humans) and several extinct species classified as either ancestral to or closely related to modern humans, including Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis. The oldest member of the genus is Homo habilis, with records of just over 2 million years ago. Homo, together with the genus Paranthropus, is probably sister to Australopithecus africanus, which itself had split from the lineage of Pan, the chimpanzees.
| Homo Temporal range: Late Pliocene-present, | |
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| Notable members of Homo. Clockwise from top left: An approximate reconstruction of a Neanderthal (Homo neanderthalensis) skeleton, a modern human (Homo sapiens) female with a child, a reconstructed Homo habilis skull, and a replica skull of Peking Man (subspecies of Homo erectus). | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Primates |
| Suborder: | Haplorhini |
| Infraorder: | Simiiformes |
| Family: | Hominidae |
| Subfamily: | Homininae |
| Tribe: | Hominini |
| Genus: | Homo Linnaeus, 1758 |
| Type species | |
| Homo sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 | |
| Species | |
For other species or subspecies suggested, see below. | |
| Synonyms | |
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Synonyms
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Homo erectus appeared about 2 million years ago and spread throughout Africa (where it is called H. ergaster) and Eurasia in several migrations. An adaptive and successful species, H. erectus persisted for more than a million years and gradually diverged into new species by around 500,000 years ago. Based on genetic studies, a human ancestor population bottleneck (from a possible 100,000 to 1000 individuals) occurred "around 930,000 and 813,000 years ago ... lasted for about 117,000 years and brought human ancestors close to extinction."
Anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) emerged close to 300,000 to 200,000 years ago, in Africa, and H. neanderthalensis emerged around the same time in Europe and Western Asia. H. sapiens dispersed from Africa in several waves, from possibly as early as 250,000 years ago, and certainly by 130,000 years ago, with the so-called Southern Dispersal beginning about 70–50,000 years ago leading to the lasting colonisation of Eurasia and Oceania by 50,000 years ago. H. sapiens met and interbred with archaic humans in Africa and in Eurasia. Separate archaic (non-sapiens) human species are thought to have survived until around 40,000 years ago (Neanderthal extinction).