Hominin

A member of the evolutionary lineage more closely related to humans than to chimpanzees. Hominins include modern humans and extinct human relatives after the human–chimpanzee lineages diverged.

Human–chimpanzee last common ancestor: The ancestral population from which the human and chimpanzee lineages descended. Hominins are identified by their descent on the human side of this split.
Bipedalism: Locomotion using two legs as the primary means of movement. Habitual upright walking is a major adaptation in the hominin lineage.
Australopithecus afarensis: An extinct East African hominin species that lived roughly 3.9 to 2.9 million years ago. Its fossils document an early hominin with habitual bipedalism and a small brain.
Sahelanthropus tchadensis: An extinct primate known from fossils in Chad dating to about seven million years ago. Its age and skull anatomy make it a candidate for one of the earliest hominins.
Hominin taxonomy: The classification of extinct and living members of the human evolutionary lineage. Researchers disagree over how many fossil forms merit separate hominin species names.
Hominidae: The great-ape family, including orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans. Hominins form a narrower lineage within the great-ape family.
Natural selection: Evolutionary change caused when heritable traits affect survival or reproductive success. Selection can explain how hominin traits changed across generations.
Australopithecus sediba: An extinct hominin species known from fossils found at Malapa, South Africa. Its mixture of anatomical traits illustrates the complexity of hominin classification.
Orrorin tugenensis: An extinct primate known from roughly six-million-year-old fossils found in Kenya. Its thigh-bone anatomy has been used to argue for early bipedalism.
Human evolution: The evolutionary history of humans and their extinct relatives. Hominin relationships are central to reconstructing the wider human evolutionary story.

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