HOMONOID/ HOMONIDS

Anthropology ASSIGNMENT 1
By: Hilal Fatima, Nur Mariyam
Zarwa Nawaz, Hanfa Shakeel

Introduction:
The Hominids also known as the Hominidae, also known as great apes, form a taxonomic family
of primates, including four branches of genus: the chimpanzees (Pan) with 2 species; gorillas
with 2 species; humans (Homo) with 1 species; and orangutans (Pongo) with 2 species.
Hominid" means species that include humans and relatives of humans closer than chimpanzees.
All the hominids, other than the Homo sapiens (modern day humans) are extinct. Hominidae was
originally the name given to humans and their extinct relatives; therefore hominids include all
the great apes and humans.
Hominid can be easily with a number of very similar words:

A hominoid, commonly called an ape, is a member of the superfamily Hominoidea:

extant members are the gibbons and hominid apes.

A hominine is a member of the subfamily homininae: gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans

(excludes orangutans).
A hominin is a member of the tribe Hominini: modern humans and their extinct relatives.
A human is a member of the genus Homo, of which Homo sapiens is the only extant
species.

Humans and resembling ancestors are biologically similar and enough to be classified as
members of the same biological tribe known as Hominini. Hominini only include humans and
that ape like ancestors that walk on two legs and can stand up straight.

Chimpanzees

Chimpanzees are two extant hominid species of apes in the genus Pan. These two species
are: the common chimpanzee, and the Bonobo. Chimpanzees are members of the family
Hominidae, along with humans, gorillas, and orangutans. Chimpanzees separated fro the human
branch of the family about four to six million years ago, and thus are the closest living relatives
to humans, being members of the tribe Hominini. Research shows that chimpanzees share 99%
similar DNA with humans
Intelligence:
Chimpanzees can make tools to use for acquiring foods and for social displays; they also
are know to develop hunting strategies which require cooperation, influence and rank; they are
status conscious, manipulative and capable of deception; they can learn to use symbols and
understand aspects of human language including some relational syntax, concepts of number and
numerical sequence. Chimps can communicate in a similar way to that of human nonverbal
communication, using vocalizations, hand gestures, and facial expressions. There is even some
evidence that they can recreate/ mimic human speech. Chimps usually travel on all fours, though
they can walk on their legs like humans for as far as a mile. They use sticks to fish termites out
of mounds and bunches of leaves to sop up drinking water.
Features and behaviors:
Chimpanzees have senses very similar to ours, including hearing, sight, smell, taste, and
touch. Chimpanzees have a slight brow ridge, large ears, small nostrils, and an elongated snout.
They are capable of many expressions. Chimpanzees have a hairless face except for a short,
white beard in both male and female adults. Chimpanzees are omnivores (eating plants and
meat). They forage for food in the forests during the day, eating leaves, fruit, seeds, tree bark,
plant bulbs, tender plant shoots, and flowers. They also eat termites, ants, and small animals.

Chimpanzees are social animals that are active during the day (they are diurnal). They live in
small, stable groups (called communities or unit groups) of about 40-60 individuals. Smaller
subgroups of 6-7 chimps stay together for a while, with the membership changing over time.
They groom one another, and each evening, chimpanzees construct a fresh "sleeping nest" in the
trees where they sleep. Young chimpanzees are known to play a lot, learning skills they will use
as an adult. They practice using tools, making sleeping nests, climbing, and wrestling. In these
ways these primates greatly resemble humans.
Chimpanzees in some aspects greatly resemble human in the ways they behave,
communicate, live socials, or have relations. Chimpanzees have been used for many kinds of
scientific research due to their DNA similarity as compared to humans. They have participated as
test subjects for medical research, and well as being part in the space program. Despite our
shared lineage, humans are pushing chimpanzees toward extinction. Chimps have already
disappeared completely from four countries and are under tremendous pressure everywhere else
they live.

Homo sapiens
Introduction:
Homo sapiens is the taxonomic binomial name of the modern human
species.
During a time of dramatic climate change 200,000 years ago, Homo sapiens
evolved in Africa. Like other early humans that were living at this time, they
gathered and hunted food, and evolved behaviors that helped them respond to the
challenges of survival in unstable environments.
Modern humans can generally be characterized by the lighter build of their

skeletons compared to earlier humans. Modern humans have very large brains,
which vary in size from population to population and between males and females,
but the average size is approximately 1300 cubic centimeters.

Housing this big brain involved the reorganization of the skull into what is thought of as
"modern" a thin-walled, high vaulted skull with a flat and near vertical forehead. Modern human
faces also show much less of the heavy brow ridges and prognathism of other early humans. Our
jaws are also less heavily developed, with smaller teeth.
Human evolution:
Human evolution is the lengthy process of change by which people originated from
apelike ancestors. Scientific evidence shows that the physical and behavioral traits shared by all
people originated from apelike ancestors and evolved over a period of approximately six million
years. One of the earliest defining human traits, bipedalism: the ability to walk on two legs
evolved over 4 million years ago. Other important human characteristics such as a large and
complex brain, the ability to make and use tools, and the capacity for language developed more

recently. Many advanced traits including complex symbolic expression, art, and elaborate
cultural diversity emerged mainly during the past 100,000 years.
Humans are primates:
Physical and genetic similarities show that the modern human species, Homo sapiens, has
a very close relationship to another group of primate species, the apes. Humans and the great
apes of Africa chimpanzees (including bonobos, or so-called pygmy chimpanzees) and gorillas
share a common ancestor that lived between 8 and 6 million years ago. Humans first evolved in
Africa, and much of human evolution occurred on that continent. The fossils of early humans
who lived between 6 and 2 million years ago come entirely from Africa.
Most scientists currently recognize some 15 to 20 different species of early humans.
Scientists do not all agree, however, about how these species are related or which ones simply
died out. Many early human species certainly the majority of them left no living descendants.
Scientists also debate over how to identify and classify particular species of early humans, and
about what factors influenced the evolution and extinction of each species.
Early humans first migrated out of Africa into Asia probably between 2 million and 1.8
million years ago. They entered Europe somewhat later, between 1.5 million and 1 million years.
Species of modern humans populated many parts of the world much later. For instance, people
first came to Australia probably within the past 60,000 years and to the Americas within the past
30,000 years or so. The beginnings of agriculture and the rise of the first civilizations occurred
within the past 12,000 years.
Paleoanthropology:
Paleoanthropology is the scientific study of human evolution. Paleoanthropology is a
subfield of anthropology, the study of human culture, society, and biology. The field involves an

understanding of the similarities and differences between humans and other species in their
genes, body form, physiology, and behavior. Paleoanthropologists search for the roots of human
physical traits and behavior.
They seek to discover how evolution has shaped the potentials, tendencies, and
limitations of all people. For many people, paleoanthropology is an exciting scientific field
because it investigates the origin, over millions of years, of the universal and defining traits of
our species. However, some people find the concept of human evolution troubling because it can
seem not to fit with religious and other traditional beliefs about how people, other living things,
and the world came to be. Nevertheless, many people have come to reconcile their beliefs with
the scientific evidence.
Survival:
Prehistoric Homo sapiens not only made and used stone tools, they also specialized them
and made a variety of smaller, more complex, refined and specialized tools including composite
stone tools, fishhooks and harpoons, bows and arrows, spear throwers and sewing needles.
For millions of years all humans, early and modern alike, had to find their own food.
They spent a large part of each day gathering plants and hunting or scavenging animals. By
164,000 years ago modern humans were collecting and cooking shellfish and by 90,000 years
ago modern humans had begun making special fishing tools. Then within just the past 12,000
years, our species Homo sapiens made the transition to producing food and changing our
surroundings. Humans found they could control the growth and breeding of certain plants and
animals. This discovery led to farming and herding animals, activities that transformed Earths
natural landscapes first locally then globally. As humans invested more time in producing food,
they settled down. Villages became towns, and towns became cities. With more food available

the human population began to increase dramatically. Our species had been so successful that it
has inadvertently created a turning point in the history of life on Earth.
Modern humans
Modern humans evolved a unique combination of physical and behavioral characteristics
many of which other early human species also possessed though not to the same degree. The
complex brains of modern humans enabled them to interact with each other and with their
surroundings in new and different ways. As the environment became more unpredictable bigger
brains helped our ancestors survive.
They made specialized tools, and use tools to make other tools, as described above they
ate a variety of they had control over fire they lived in shelters they built broad social networks,
sometimes including people they have never even met they exchanged resources over wide areas
and they created art, music, personal adornment, rituals, and a complex symbolic world. Modern
humans have spread to every continent and vastly expanded their numbers. They have altered the
world in ways that benefit them greatly. But this transformation has unintended consequences for
other species as well as for ourselves, creating new survival challenges.
Compare a Chimp with an Early and Modern Human:
Modern chimpanzees occasionally walk upright, but their skeletons are not adapted for
regular walking on two legs. Early humans evolved skeletons that supported their bodies in an
upright position. Modern humans have bodies adapted for walking and running long distances
on two legs.
1. Skull: Drawings of skulls of a chimpanzee, early human and modern human. The spine of
early humans connected with the skull underneath, stabilizing the head when walking

upright. Your spine connects with your skull underneath and near the center, holding your
head firmly upright.
2. Upper Leg Bone: Drawings of upper leg bones of a chimpanzee early human and modern
human. Drawings of upper leg bones of a chimpanzee early human and modern human
.The connection between the upper thigh and hip bones was longer in early humans than
in chimpanzees, and its base thicker. The hip muscles could provide support for walking.
The connection between your upper leg and hip bones is long. Its base is strong and able
to withstand the stresses of walking and running.
3. Lower Knee: Drawings of lower knee bones of a chimpanzee, early human and modern
human. The early human knee joint was strong, enabling this early human to regularly
support its weight on one leg at a time during walking. Strong knee joints help support
your bodys weight on one leg at a time while walking long distances.

Gorllas

Gorillas are the largest of all primates, and there is no mistaking them for any of the

others such as chimpanzees and monkeys.

Unique in their body design even though they do have some similarities.

Like humans, all gorillas have a set of fingerprints that are uniquely their owns. The arms of a
gorilla are much longer than their legs. They will do so when they feel threatened.

Physcal characteristic
The head of the gorilla is very large. They definitely can look mean due to the structure of their
jaw line. The gorilla doesnt have a tail which. There are 32 teeth in a full-grown gorilla.
They also have a longer rib cage and the pelvic bones are wider.
This is just one more reason why there is such a connection between humans and gorillas.

Intelligence
Gorillas are considered highly intelligent. Like the other great apes, gorillas can laugh, grieve,
and have rich emotional lives. Some researchers believe gorillas have spiritual and have been
shown to have cultures in different areas.

Etymology
The word "gorilla" comes from the history of Hanno the Navigator (circa 500 BC) a
Carthaginian explorer on an expedition on the west African encountered "a savage people. The
American physician and missionary Thomas Savage and naturalist Jeffries first described the
western gorilla (they called it Troglodytes gorilla) in 1847 from specimens obtained in Liberia.

Orangutans

Orangutans are the two exclusively Asian species of extant great apes. They are native to
Indonesia and Malaysia, orangutans are currently found in only the rainforests of Borneo and
Sumatra. Orangutans are the most arboreal of the great apes and spend most of their time in
trees. Their hair is typically reddish-brown, instead of the brown or black hair typical of
chimpanzees and gorillas. Males and females differ in size and appearance.
These apes have been extensively studied for their learning abilities.

Intelligence
Orangutans are among the most intelligent primates. Experiments suggest they can figure out
some invisible displacement problems with a representational strategy. Orangutans are very
technically adept nest builders, making a new nest each evening in only in 5 to 6 minutes and
choosing branches, which they know, can support their body weight.

Etymology
Orangutan is derived from the Malay and Indonesian words orang meaning "person" and
hutan meaning "forest. The word appeared in several German-language descriptions of
Indonesian zoology in the 17th century. The likely origin of the word comes specifically from the
Banjarese variety of Malay. The word was first attested in English in 1691 in the form orangoutang, and variants with in instead of as in the Malay original are found in many languages.