Primates

Primates are a group of mammals including lemurs, monkeys and apes. Grasping appendages, sensory organization and social behavior vary substantially within the group. Features of one familiar species should not be treated as universal primate properties.

The rhesus macaque, Macaca mulatta, is an Old World monkey used in research on physiology, animal behaviour and neuroscience. Its importance as a model depends on the particular trait and comparison, not on an assumption of complete equivalence to humans.

A squirrel-monkey species used in tests of acquired colour discrimination after opsin addition.

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]

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]

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]

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]

Pongo is the genus of orangutans, great apes native to Southeast Asia. Their long forelimbs and arboreal behavior provide comparisons for studying locomotion and the diversity of the ape body plan.

Gorilla is a genus of African great apes. Comparison with other apes connects differences in feeding, locomotion and social organization to shared evolutionary ancestry. A genus-level description does not erase variation among species and populations.

The genus containing Homo sapiens and extinct related species.

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 genus containing chimpanzees and bonobos, the closest living sister lineage of Homo.

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.

Colobinae are a group of Old World monkeys including colobus monkeys and langurs. Specialized foregut digestion supports use of fibrous plant material. This is a distinctive digestive organization within Primates, not a general feature of all monkeys.

A member of Colobinae, a primate lineage with specialized foregut fermentation.