Phylogeny and cladistics are branches of biology that aim to explore kinship relationships between species and taxa. Previously, living beings were related based on their morphological characters, but today, genetic studies have opened various paths and challenged the relationships between many animal groups.
How else can you explain that, for example, an amphibian that was a single species suddenly divides into five different population subgroups? Phylogenetic relationships are mobile and subject to change, not because animals evolve very quickly, but because humans increasingly have more tools to understand them.
This means that terminological divisions are becoming more and more and the general population is becoming confused. This is the case, for example, of the words “hominid” and “hominin”, two closely related terms that can generate a jumble of concepts in a person who is not fully dedicated to anthropology.
What are the main differences between hominins and hominids? Are you clear to which animal family human beings belong to? Do you know what other living beings we share a taxonomic group with? Today we answer all these questions.
Differences between hominins and hominids: question of terms
First of all, it is essential that we make it clear that The term hominid refers to a “family”, a systematic unit that is above the genus , but below the order. Within the family aggregation, the different species can be grouped into subfamilies and infrafamilies, terms included in the “International Code of Zoological Nomenclature”, whose purpose is to standardize the chaotic number of concepts that try to cover all the animals on Earth.
Instead, The term hominin refers to a “subtibu” , a taxonomic category between family and genus, this word being closer to the latter. Since hominins are a more specific aggregation than hominids, it is not surprising that the first term is contained within the second. Do not despair, because below we explain it in a more friendly way.
As we have stated, hominins are a subtribe found within the hominid family and are characterized by an upright posture and bipedal locomotion. We, human beings, are hominins and also hominids Complex, but at the same time simple, right?
Below, we show you some differences between these two groups (of course relative, since one is contained within the other).
1. Members
As the groupings are two different concepts, a series of variable animals will belong to them.
For example, since hominids are a term that refers to a family, we can find many more species included in it than if we look only at hominins. Inside to the family Hominidae humans and great apes are found, cataloged in these subfamilies :
As we can see, this more general term does not exclude orangutans , a genus that includes three species that according to studies suffered a genetic divergence between them more than 2.5 million years ago. These great apes, native to Indonesia and Malaysia, are characterized by their large sizes (1.50 meters in length), their fine and dense reddish coats, and their arboreal habits. These primates present 3.1% DNA genetic differences with the rest of the hominids grouped into closer subfamilies.
Chimpanzees and gorillas are also within this large family since they are under the umbrella of the subfamily Homininae. The tribe Gorillini It includes gorillas, enormous primates that usually move on all fours and share 98% of the human genome. They are highly intelligent, corpulent, with black fur and habits that are surprisingly close to those of people in many cases.
Finally, the tribe Hominini It is also found within the hominid family, and This includes the gender Bread and to gender Homo The gender Bread It includes the species Pan paniscus and Pan troglodytes, lifelong chimpanzees. Genetic studies show that these friendly primates underwent an evolutionary divergence from gorillas 7-8 million years ago, and from the Homo genus just 6 million years ago.
Therefore, it is not surprising that chimpanzees share up to 99% of the genetic code with us humans. These small primates, clearly humanoid in appearance, have hierarchical societies, are capable of deception and understand many human interactions. Because of our phylogenetic closeness, it is impossible to look a chimpanzee in the eye and not feel a certain part of ourselves in him.
Let’s return to terminology after exploring the extensive family Hominidae. In contrast, the subtribe Hominin (yes, which is part of the subfamily Homininae and of the tribe Hominini) only contains humans, the species Homo sapiens. There is not much more to tell about this category, since this is what it has been designed for, to refer only to our species.
Following a small concatenation of terms, the classification of the human being would be as follows:
Order Primates – family Hominidae – subfamily Homininae – tribe Hominini – subtribe Hominin – gender Homo – species Homo sapiens.
If we want something to be clear in this terminological jumble, it is that All great primates are hominids, but not all hominids are hominins Only we, the human species, find ourselves in this last category.
2. Bipedalism
As we have seen, there is a key characteristic that produces differences between hominins and other hominids: bipedalism. It is clear that a chimpanzee can stand on its two forelimbs at specific moments, but Completely bipedal locomotion and skeletal adjustment for it is a privilege only present in human beings In nature, bipedalism is risky and expensive for several reasons:
Clearly, it’s not all disadvantages. Although bipedalism did not arise as an evolutionary response to human intelligence, This form of locomotion allowed us to use our hind limbs to use and handle tools that is, brain development.
No matter how many similarities we hominins have with other hominids, the morphological differences are also palpable, since it is enough to compare the photo of a person with that of a gorilla. For example, The rest of the primates have prehensile feet, since the first toe of these is more robust and is aligned with the remaining four
Height, weight, hair distribution and diverse muscle development are also obvious morphological differences between hominins and other hominids. Yes, for example, We all have relatively large brains and a mouthpart made up of 32 teeth Where differences are found, bridges are also built.
Conclusions
As we have seen in the previous lines, The term hominin is nothing more than an appreciation to differentiate the human being from the rest of the hominoid primates that is, orangutans, gorillas and chimpanzees.
Despite the differences that we have tried to emphasize in this space, it is clear that when comparing ourselves with any other animal species, we have much more in common than different with all these primates. This is not a matter of chance, since in some way the 99% of genetic kinship that we show with chimpanzees must be expressed.
If we take anything away from this dive into the phylogenetic history of higher primates, it is that We are the only hominids alive today, but we share the family Hominidae with many other species of living beings The differences between hominins and hominids, on a large scale and taking into account the diversity of the animal kingdom, are minimal.
