A member of Hominoidea, comprising lesser apes and great apes. Living members do not exhaust the anatomical diversity of extinct apes.
A member of Hominidae, including Pongo, Gorilla, Pan and Homo. Living apes are evolved comparative relatives, not unchanged ancestral populations.
An extinct African hominin genus whose species combine different locomotor and feeding character mosaics.
A Pliocene hominin important to studies of the relationship between habitual bipedalism and retained climbing capabilities. Comparative analysis must account for age and growth. [ref]
Australopithecus afarensis scapular ontogeny, function, and the role of climbing in human evolution by David J. Green and others. Science 338, pp. 514–517; juvenile scapula and comparative growth patterns
An extinct African hominin genus, including Paranthropus boisei, with specialized masticatory anatomy.
An East African hominin with very large postcanine teeth and a robust feeding apparatus. dental microwear and enamel carbon-isotope evidence complicate a simple inference of habitual hard-object feeding from gross anatomy. [ref]
Dental Microwear and Diet of the Plio-Pleistocene Hominin Paranthropus boisei by Peter S. Ungar and others. PLoS ONE 3, e2044; seven specimens with preserved microwear and comparison with gross anatomy
In the human-evolution usage adopted here, a member of the human lineage after its separation from Pan. Usage and formal tribal boundaries should be stated because classifications differ.
A Miocene fossil ape with a mosaic of trunk and hand characters. Its informative anatomy does not uniquely identify it as the Pan–Homo last common ancestor. [ref]
Pierolapithecus catalaunicus, a new Middle Miocene great ape from Spain by Salvador Moyà-Solà and others. Science 306, pp. 1339–1344; orthograde trunk and contrasting hand morphology
An African fossil ape genus including Ardipithecus ramidus, important to hypotheses about early hominin locomotion.
An approximately 4.4-million-year-old fossil hominin with an informative, incomplete skeleton. Its inferred locomotor mosaic differs from treating a living chimpanzee as an unchanged human ancestor. [ref]
Ardipithecus ramidus and the paleobiology of early hominids by Tim D. White and others. Science 326, pp. 75–86; 4.4 Ma skeleton and locomotor mosaic
An archaic human lineage first characterized genetically. Its contribution to some living populations illustrates a history more complex than complete replacement without interbreeding.
An extinct Eurasian human lineage known from fossils and Ancient DNA, with evidence of genetic admixture with ancestors of living people.
The living human species. Its population history includes African ancestral structure, dispersal, demographic change and genetic admixture.
The species Pan paniscus, sister to the chimpanzee within Pan. It is a living evolved lineage rather than an unchanged ancestral social model.
The species Pan troglodytes, distinguished from the bonobo. Within-species ecological and behavioural variation matters in comparative inference.
Ondatra zibethicus, a rodent introduced to Britain through fur farming and subsequently eradicated.
Myocastor coypus, a South American rodent whose escaped populations were the subject of an eradication campaign in Britain.
Sciurus vulgaris, whose regional decline or recovery can reflect habitat, competitors, pathogens and predators.
Sciurus carolinensis, native to North America and introduced to Britain and Ireland. Its effects can include competition and pathogen-mediated impacts.