Homininae

Homininae
Common Chimpanzee in Cameroon\'s South Province
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Primates Superfamily: Hominoidea Family: Hominidae Subfamily: Homininae Gray, 1825
Tribes
Gorillini Hominini and see text

Homininae is a subfamily of Hominidae, including Homo sapiens and some extinct relatives, as well as the gorillas and the chimpanzees. It comprises all those hominids, such as Australopithecus, that arose after the split from the other great apes (of which orangutans are the only surviving group).

Until 1980, the family Hominidae contained only humans, with the great apes in the family Pongidae.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, 204–234.  Discoveries led to a revision of classification, with the great apes (now Ponginae) and humans (Homininae) united in Hominidae.M. Goodman (1974). "Biochemical Evidence on Hominid Phylogeny". Annual Review of Anthropology 3: 203–228.  But further discoveries indicated that gorillas and chimpanzees are more closely related to humans than they are to orangutans, hence their current placement in Homininae.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.  Hominoid taxonomy has had several changes in the classification of apes in recent years.

Hominoid family tree

The subfamily Homininae can be further subdivided into the tribes Gorillini (gorillas) and Hominini (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.

References

Wikispecies has information related to:

Homininae

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Homininae

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