Hominine in the context of "Mary Leakey"

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⭐ Core Definition: Hominine

The Homininae (/hɒmɪˈnaɪniː/; hominines) is a subfamily of the family Hominidae (hominids). The Homininae encompass humans, and are also called "African hominids" or "African apes". This subfamily includes two tribes, Hominini and Gorillini, both having extant (or living) species as well as extinct species.

Tribe Hominini includes: the extant genus Homo, which comprises only one extant species — modern human (Homo sapiens), and numerous extinct human species; and the extant genus Pan, which includes two extant species, chimpanzees and bonobos. Tribe Gorillini (gorillas) contains one extant genus, Gorilla, with two extant species, with variants, and one known extinct genus. Alternatively, the genus Pan is considered by some to belong, instead of to a subtribe Panina, to its own separate tribe, (so-called) "Panini," which would be a third tribe for Homininae.

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👉 Hominine in the context of Mary Leakey

Mary Douglas Leakey, FBA (née Nicol, 6 February 1913 – 9 December 1996) was a British paleoanthropologist who discovered the first fossilised Proconsul skull, an extinct ape believed to be ancestral to humans. She also discovered the robust Zinjanthropus skull at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, eastern Africa. For much of her career she worked with her husband, Louis Leakey, at Olduvai Gorge, where they uncovered fossils of ancient hominines and the earliest hominins, as well as the stone tools produced by the latter group. Mary Leakey developed a system for classifying the stone tools found at Olduvai. She discovered the Laetoli footprints, and at the Laetoli site she discovered hominin fossils that were more than 3.75 million years old.

During her career, Leakey discovered fifteen new species of animal. She also brought about the naming of a new genus.

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Hominine in the context of Ardipithecus

Ardipithecus is a genus of an extinct hominine that lived during the Late Miocene and Early Pliocene epochs in the Afar Depression, Ethiopia. Originally described as one of the earliest ancestors of humans after they diverged from the chimpanzees, the relation of this genus to human ancestors and whether it is a hominin is now a matter of debate. Two fossil species are described in the literature: A. ramidus, which lived about 4.4 million years ago during the early Pliocene, and A. kadabba, dated to approximately 5.6 million years ago (late Miocene). Initial behavioral analysis indicated that Ardipithecus could be very similar to chimpanzees; however, more recent analysis based on canine size and lack of canine sexual dimorphism indicates that Ardipithecus was characterised by reduced aggression, and that they more closely resemble bonobos.

Some analyses describe Australopithecus as being sister to Ardipithecus ramidus specifically. This means that Australopithecus is distinctly more closely related to Ardipithecus ramidus than Ardipithecus kadabba. Cladistically, then, Australopithecus (and eventually Homo sapiens) indeed emerged within the Ardipithecus lineage, and this lineage is not literally extinct.

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LINKED FROM (PARENTS)
← Ardipithecus ← Mary Leakey
LINKS TO (CHILDREN)
Subfamily → Hominidae → Hominini → Gorillini → Extant taxon → Extinct → Homo → Human → Pan (genus) → Chimpanzee → Bonobo → Gorilla → Panina →