Homininae

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Homininae
Common Chimpanzee
in Cameroon's South Province
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Infraorder: Simiiformes
Superfamily: Hominoidea
Family: Hominidae
Subfamily: Homininae
Gray, 1825
Tribes

Gorillini
Hominini
and see text

Homininae is a subfamily of Hominidae, which includes humans, gorillas and chimpanzees, and some extinct human relatives; it comprises all those hominids, such as Australopithecus, that arose after the split from the other great apes.

Until 1980, the family Hominidae contained only humans, with the great apes in the family Pongidae.[1] Discoveries led to a revision of classification, with the great apes (now Ponginae) and humans (Homininae) united in Hominidae.[2] Further discoveries indicated that gorillas and chimpanzees are more closely related to humans than they are to orangutans, hence their current placement in Homininae.[3]

Hominoid family tree

The subfamily Homininae can be further subdivided into the tribes Gorillini (gorillas) and Hominini (bonobos, chimpanzees and humans). The early Late Miocene Nakalipithecus nakayamai, described in 2007, and perhaps also its contemporary Ouranopithecus, are basal members of this clade, not assignable to either the gorilla or the chimpanzee-humans lineage. They suggest that the Homininae tribes diverged not earlier than about 8 million years ago.[citation needed]

A hominin is a member of the tribe Hominini, a hominine is a member of the subfamily Homininae, a hominid is a member of the family Hominidae, and a hominoid is a member of the superfamily Hominoidea.


Classification

Subfamily Homininae

[edit] References

  1. ^ M. Goodman (1964). "Man’s place in the phylogeny of the primates as reflected in serum proteins". in S. L. Washburn. Classification and human evolution. Aldine, Chicago. pp. 204–234. 
  2. ^ M. Goodman (1974). "Biochemical Evidence on Hominid Phylogeny". Annual Review of Anthropology 3: 203–228. doi:10.1146/annurev.an.03.100174.001223. 
  3. ^ M. Goodman, D. A. Tagle, D. H. Fitch, W. Bailey, J. Czelusniak, B. F. Koop, P. Benson, J. L. Slightom (1990). "Primate evolution at the DNA level and a classification of hominoids". Journal of Molecular Evolution 30: 260–266. doi:10.1007/BF02099995+. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=2109087&dopt=Abstract.