Who’s Who Among the Early Hominins?

Magazine article:
Title: Who’s Who Among the Early Hominins?
by Randall Susman
pg. 22 - 25
October 2009

Our first ancestors, hominins or hominids shared various physical features and also the DNA shows so. A reason why they were also called ape-men. The members of the group primates are us (moder humans) and generally hominins and African apes. Scientists gave different names to the different types of stages. Very complex names were given, some examples are: Ardipithecus, Parathropus, Homo Rudolfensis, Homo Florensiesis, etc.

They actually follow this order:

• Ardipithecus: which was the earliest hominid, many of its characterists are similar to apes and it is 4.4 million years old.
• Kenyapithecus: found in Kenya, 3.5 m.y.a. when it was found the skull was into millions of pieces
• Austrolopithecus: or ‘southern ape’ it was a broad group of hominid and it is approximately 2 million years old.
• Paranthropus: also called ‘robust’ austrolopithecus. 2.5 m.y.a. and it is the hominin which started to get similar to man with those particular features:
• bipedal
• human hand and foot
• massive chewing muscles
• Early Homo: Hominins are improving their ability with hand, we can say that from the evidence of non-modified stone tools. Apes are starting to gain many characterists that have today such as
• larger brains
• smaller teeth
• Homo Habilis: Also called ‘handy man’. Some scietists argue weather Early Homo hunted and killed animals. Susman when talking about Homo Habilis also says: “H. habilis is best known from the fossils found at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. Fossils also have been recovered in Kenya ans Ethiopia. H. habilis has a larger brain, and smaller, narrower premolar teeth than Austrolopithecus and Paranthropus.” this means that Homo habilis is part of the Early Homo.
• Homo Rudolfensis: it was found in Northern Kenya, and it dates the same as Homo habilis but has different features/characteristics. The face is flatter and it has a larger brain.
• Homo erectus: renamed ‘upright man’ was found all over the world, this shows hunting. The author describes Homo eructus as: “H. erectus also has a larger brain with thick skull bonesand prominent brow ridges. The crests on the skulls for the attachment of chewing muscles are smaller in comparison with those of other early hominins.
• Homo neanderthalensis: 250,000 to 300,000 years old, it lived in Europe and Asia. Thebpdy size and structure is very similar to humans’ ones.
• Homo florensiensis: 94,000 years old. The author explains that: “ H. florensiensis retained primitive skeleton features more characteristic of early hominins of the Plicene - Pleistocene. this evidence does not support the suggestions of some scientists that the Flores Hominins represent a population of moder humans with genetic abnormalities.”.