Hominini Temporal range:
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Two hominins: A human holding a chimpanzee (Joseph V. Brady and Ham the chimp) | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Primates |
Suborder: | Haplorhini |
Infraorder: | Simiiformes |
Family: | Hominidae |
Subfamily: | Homininae |
Tribe: | Hominini Arambourg, 1948[1] |
Type genus | |
Homo Linnaeus, 1758
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Genera | |
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The Hominini (hominins) form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae (hominines). They comprise two extant genera: Homo (humans) and Pan (chimpanzees and bonobos), but in standard usage exclude the genus Gorilla (gorillas), which is grouped separately within subfamily Homininae.
The term Hominini was originally introduced by Camille Arambourg (1948), who combined the categories of Hominina and Simiina pursuant to Gray's classifications (1825).
Traditionally, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans were grouped together, excluding humans, as pongids. Since Gray's classifications, evidence accumulating from genetic phylogeny confirmed that humans, chimpanzees, and gorillas are more closely related to each other than to the orangutan.[3] The orangutans were reassigned to the family Hominidae (great apes), which already included humans; and the gorillas were grouped as a separate tribe (Gorillini) of the subfamily Homininae.[3] Still, details of this reassignment remain contested, and of publishing since (on tribe Hominini), not every source excludes gorillas and not every source includes chimpanzees.
Humans are the only extant species in the Australopithecine branch (subtribe), which also contains many extinct close relatives of humans.
However, overwhelming genetic evidence has since demonstrated that humans, chimpanzees, and gorillas are much more closely related to each other than to the orangutan ... Thus, there is no genetic support for grouping the great apes together in a distinct group from humans. For this reason, many researchers now place all species of great ape and human within a single family, Hominidae – making them all proper 'hominids'.