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Homo (from Latin homō '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.
2.8–2.0 Ma Early Homo appears in East Africa, speciating from australopithecine ancestors. The Lower Paleolithic is defined by the beginning of use of stone tools. Australopithecus garhi was using stone tools at about 2.5 Ma. Homo habilis is the oldest species given the designation Homo, by Leakey et al. in 1964.
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.
The Hominidae (/ h ɒ ˈ m ɪ n ɪ d iː /), whose members are known as the great apes [note 1] or hominids (/ ˈ h ɒ m ɪ n ɪ d z /), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: Pongo (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); Gorilla (the eastern and western gorilla); Pan (the chimpanzee and the bonobo); and Homo, of which only modern humans ...
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.
After 1.5 million years ago (extinction of Paranthropus), all fossils shown are human (genus Homo). After 11,500 years ago (11.5 ka, beginning of the Holocene ), all fossils shown are Homo sapiens ( anatomically modern humans ), illustrating recent divergence in the formation of modern human sub-populations .
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]
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.