Great Ape
| Hominidae Temporal range: Miocene-Present, 23.03–0 Ma |
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| Two hominids: A human (Homo sapiens) and a chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Synapsida |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Primates |
| Suborder: | Haplorhini |
| Superfamily: | Hominoidea |
| Family: |
Hominidae Gray, 1825 |
| Type genus | |
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Homo Linnaeus, 1758 |
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| Subfamily | |
| Synonyms | |
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The Hominidae (/hɒˈmɪnᵻdiː/), whose members are known as great apes or hominids, are a taxonomic family of primates that includes seven extant species in four genera: Pongo, the Bornean and Sumatran orangutan; Gorilla, the eastern and western gorilla; Pan, the common chimpanzee and the bonobo; and Homo, the human (and though not extant, the near-human ancestors and relatives (e.g., the Neanderthal)).
Several revisions in classifying the great apes have caused the use of the term "hominid" to vary over time. Its original meaning referred only to humans (Homo) and their closest non-extant relatives. That restrictive meaning has now been largely assumed by the term "hominin", which comprises all members of the human clade after the split from the chimpanzees (Pan). (See below, for a fuller discussion of related and very similar terms, at Terminology.) The current, 21st-century meaning of "hominid" refers to all the great apes including humans. Usage still varies, however, and some scientists and laypersons still use "hominid" in the original restrictive sense; the scholarly literature generally shows the traditional usage until around the turn of the 21st century.
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