familia Hominidae - tribus Hominini: Hominids, Human - Menschenaffen, der Mensch
See also English and German Wiki on human evolution.
- Sahelanthropus (genus): ~7 mio - 6 mio years ago; probably oldest Hominini genus (disputed)
| Sahelanthropus tchadensis: taxonomy still controversely discussed, Sahelanthropus is considered by some being "closer to Homo than Pan" but by others a predecessor of Pan or even Gorilla
-.- Orrorin (genus): +/- 6 mio years ago; certainly Hominini, probably the oldest one
| Orrorin tugenensis: only very few bones found and by some considered to be the direct ancestor of Homo (as the Orrorin femur = thigh bone is closer to Homo than that of Australopithecus): this genus definitely could already walk upright; if this could be proven Australopithecus should be considered only a sidebranch of the Hominini tree which has no direct descendants
-.-/- Ardipithecus (genus): ~5,8 mio - 4,4 mio years ago
| Ardipithecus kadabba: ~5,8 mio - 5,3 mio years ago; probably ancestor of A. ramidus (but still disputed)
| Ardipithecus ramidus: ~5,5 mio - 4,4 mio years ago; famous found of female skeleton Ardi: confirmed as being bipedal on open terrain while moving quadrupedal in trees
| Australopithecus anamensis: ~4,5 mio - 4 mio years ago
| Australopithecus afarensis: ~4 mio - 3 mio years ago
| Australopithecus bahrelghazali: ~3,5 mio - 3 mio years ago
| Australopithecus africanus: ~3,3 mio - 2,5 mio years ago
| Australopithecus garhi: ~3,2 mio - 2 mio years ago
-.-/-/-.- Paranthropus (genus+): ~2,75 mio - 1,2 mio years ago; probably descendants of Australopithecus and most likely no ancestors of Homo
| Paranthropus aethiopicus: ~2,75 mio - 2,5 mio years ago
| Paranthropus boisei: ~2,6 mio - 1,5 mio years ago
-.-/-/-/- Homo (genus): Human - Mensch
| Homo habilis: ~(2,5) 2,4 mio - 1,4 mio years ago (South and East Africa); first Homo genus, believed to be a descendant of Australopithecus (or Orrorin?): walks upright, smaller molars, larger brains, uses tools; unclear (probable) subgenus of H. rudolfensis and H. georgicus
|-| Homo ergaster: ~1,8 mio - 1,25 mio years ago (Africa, spreading to Europe and Asia): considered by some to be the earlier stages of Homo erectus, by some subsumed under the latter species or considered a subspecies Homo erectus ergaster
|-|- Homo erectus: ~(1,8) 1,25 mio - 70.000 years ago (originating in Africa and from 1,25 mio years onwards only present in Asia): a sidebranch of the Homo branch which finally became extinct without direct descendants
|-|-| Homo antecessor ~1,2 mio - 500.000 years ago (Spain, England); Homo cepranensis ~800.000 years old (Italy) (and probably Homo mauritanicus): considered intermediate stages between H. ergaster (erectus?) and H. rhodesiensis
|-|-|- Homo heidelbergensis ~800.000 - 300.000 years ago (proposed also as H. sapiens heidelbergensis and H. sapiens paleohungaricus): predecessor of H. neanderthalensis but very much transitional between the latter and H. erectus
|-|-|-.- Homo neanderthalensis ~400.000/250.000 - 30.000 years ago (also proposed as Homo sapiens neanderthalensis: no significant gene flow between H. neanderthalensis and H. sapiens could be proven, therefore both are (still) considered different species whose common ancestors should have lived ~660.000 years ago; died out without any direct descendants (there are speculations of an unsignificant gene mix with later Homo sapiens in Western Europe)
|-|-|- Homo rhodesiensis ~300.000 - 125.000 years ago: believed to be a descendant of H. antecessor even though there's a gap of about 200.000 years between both; recently found Gawis cranium might possibly fill this gap (dated 500.000-250.000 years ago) but it still remains to be seen if this could be a missing link or if it is just a sidebranch without any descendants
|-|-|-| Homo sapiens (sapiens) ~250.000 years ago and waiting yet for becoming extinct: newest research has established that our ancestors were genetically extremely homogenuous and probably descendants of a very small (African) group (thus, Homo sapiens might have been on the verge of extinction then), probably only a few hundred, or a few thousand; there is a possibility that some cataclysmic event (probably a volcanic eruption like the one of Toba ~75.000 - 70.000 years ago) almost led to the extinction of the genus and that only a small group survived, and populated the world afterwards; Homo sapiens lived alongside other hominid species, noticeably Homo neanderthalensis, for a significant period of time so that it is very much possible that some gene mixing occured
|-|-|-|x Homo sapiens x neanderthalensis: as said above, there is much speculation about cross-breeding between those species, especially in Europe where they lived alongside for millenia; there is little genetic evidence for this but intellectual analysis of some very thick guys (to name but a few: HC, GWB, and others) indicate that Homo sapiens couldn't possibly have reached its peak with brains like that, thus most likely at least some genes of H. neanderthalensis should have transferred to Homo sapiens
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