Modern humans' dawn
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Homo sapiens Temporal range: 0.2–0 Ma –Present |
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| Male and female H s. sapiens (Akha in northern Thailand, 2010 photograph) |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Primates |
| Suborder: | Haplorhini |
| Infraorder: | Simiiformes |
| Family: | Hominidae |
| Genus: | Homo |
| Species: | H. sapiens |
| Binomial name | |
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Homo sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 |
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| Subspecies | |
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H. s. sapiens |
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H. s. sapiens
†H. s. idaltu
†H. s. neanderthalensis(?)
†H. s. rhodesiensis(?)
(others proposed)
Homo sapiens is the systematic name used in taxonomy (also known as binomial nomenclature) for anatomically modern humans, i.e. the only extant human species. The name is Latin for " " and was introduced in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus (who is himself also the type specimen).
Extinct species of the genus Homo are classified as "archaic humans". This includes at least the separate species Homo erectus, and possibly a number of other species (which are variously also considered subspecies of either H. sapiens or H. erectus. H. sapiens idaltu (2003) is a proposed extinct subspecies of H. sapiens.
The age of speciation of H. sapiens out of ancestral H. erectus (or an intermediate species such as Homo heidelbergensis) is estimated to have taken place at roughly 315,000 years ago. However, there is known to have been continued admixture from archaic human species until as late as some 30,000 years ago; this is also the time of disappearance of any surviving archaic human species, which were apparently absorbed by the recent Out-Of-Africa expansion of Homo sapiens beginning some 50,000 years ago.
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Wikipedia