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Homo (from Latin homÅ 'human') is a genus of great ape (family Hominidae) that emerged from the genus Australopithecus and encompasses only a single extant species, Homo sapiens (modern humans), along with a number of extinct species (collectively called archaic humans) classified as either ancestral or closely related to modern humans; these include Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis.
The genus Homo has been taken to originate some two million years ago, since the discovery of stone tools in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, in the 1960s. Homo habilis (Leakey et al., 1964) would be the first "human" species (member of genus Homo) by definition, its type specimen being the OH 7 fossils.
Homo erectus derives from early Homo or late Australopithecus. Homo habilis, although significantly different of anatomy and physiology, is thought to be the ancestor of Homo ergaster, or African Homo erectus; but it is also known to have coexisted with H. erectus for almost half a million years
LD 350-1 is the earliest known specimen of the genus Homo, dating to 2.75–2.8 million years ago (mya), found in the Ledi-Geraru site in the Afar Region of Ethiopia.The specimen was discovered in silts 10 m (33 ft) above the Gurumaha Tuff section of the site [1] [2] by Ethiopian palaeoanthropologist Chalachew Seyoum on 29 January 2013.
Human evolution is the evolutionary process that led to the emergence of anatomically modern humans, beginning with the evolutionary history of primates – in particular genus Homo – and leading to the emergence of Homo sapiens as a distinct species of the hominid family, the great apes.
The period that followed was marked by a strong increase in cranial capacity, promoting speculation that the loss of the gene may have removed an evolutionary constraint on brain size in the genus Homo. [21] Another estimate for the loss of the MYH16 gene is 5.3 million years ago, long before Homo appeared. [22]
The genus Homo evolved from Australopithecus. [7] The earliest record of Homo is the 2.8 million-year-old specimen LD 350-1 from Ethiopia, [8] and the earliest named species is Homo habilis which evolved by 2.3 million years ago. [9] The most important difference between Homo habilis and Australopithecus was a 50% increase in brain size. [10]
The following tables give an overview of notable finds of hominin fossils and remains relating to human evolution, beginning with the formation of the tribe Hominini (the divergence of the human and chimpanzee lineages) in the late Miocene, roughly 7 to 8 million years ago.