Hominin phylogeny

Hominin phylogeny is the evolutionary history and pattern of relationships among humans and extinct species more closely related to humans than to chimpanzees.

Hominin: A member of the evolutionary group comprising modern humans and extinct species closer to humans than to chimpanzees. This is the group whose evolutionary relationships the phylogeny describes.
Australopithecus afarensis: An East African hominin species that lived about 3.9 to 2.9 million years ago. Its anatomy and age place it near the early diversification of later hominins.
Morphological phylogenetics: The inference of evolutionary relationships from observable anatomical or other physical characters. It turns fossil features such as teeth and skull shape into testable tree hypotheses.
Last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees: The ancestral population from which the human and chimpanzee lineages diverged. Its age and characteristics set the starting point for hominin evolutionary history.
Human evolution: The evolutionary process that produced modern humans and their ancestral populations. Hominin phylogeny supplies the branching history within this broader process.
Phylogenetics: The study of evolutionary relationships among organisms using shared traits and genetic evidence. Its methods provide the framework for reconstructing hominin lineages.
Homo habilis: An early Homo species known from African fossils dating to roughly 2.4 to 1.4 million years ago. Its position near the origins of Homo remains debated.
Ancient DNA: Genetic material recovered from archaeological or paleontological remains of past organisms. It has revealed relationships and gene flow among late hominin populations.
Homo sapiens origins: The emergence and early evolutionary history of the modern human species. Fossils and genomes continue to refine when and how our species formed.
Human migration: The movement of human populations across regions and continents over time. Lineage relationships help distinguish dispersal routes from local ancestry.

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