Homininae

Taxobox
name = Homininae

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image_width = 250px
image_caption = Common Chimpanzee
in Cameroon's South Province
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Primates
superfamilia = Hominoidea
familia = Hominidae
subfamilia = Homininae
subfamilia_authority = Gray, 1825
subdivision_ranks = Tribes
subdivision =
Gorillini
Hominini
and see text

Homininae is a subfamily of Hominidae, including humans and some extinct relatives, as well as the gorillas and the chimpanzees. It comprises all those , such as "Australopithecus", that arose after the split from the other great apes (of which orangutans are the only surviving group).

Until 1980, the family Hominidae contained only humans, with the great apes in the family Pongidae.cite book | author = M. Goodman | year = 1964 | chapter = Man’s place in the phylogeny of the primates as reflected in serum proteins | editor = S. L. Washburn | title = Classification and human evolution | publisher = Aldine, Chicago|pages = 204–234] Discoveries led to a revision of classification, with the great apes (now Ponginae) and humans (Homininae) united in Hominidae.cite journal | journal = Annual Review of Anthropology | volume = 3 | pages = 203–228 | year = 1974 | doi = 10.1146/annurev.an.03.100174.001223 | title = Biochemical Evidence on Hominid Phylogeny | author = M. Goodman] But further discoveries indicated that gorillas and chimpanzees are more closely related to humans than they are to orangutans, hence their current placement in Homininae.cite journal | journal = Journal of Molecular Evolution | year = 1990 | volume = 30 | pages = 260–266 | url = http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=2109087&dopt=Abstract | title = Primate evolution at the DNA level and a classification of hominoids | author = M. Goodman, D. A. Tagle, D. H. Fitch, W. Bailey, J. Czelusniak, B. F. Koop, P. Benson, J. L. Slightom | doi = 10.1007/BF02099995 ] Hominoid taxonomy has had several changes in the classification of apes in recent years.

The subfamily Homininae can be further subdivided into the tribes Gorillini (gorillas) and Hominini (chimpanzees and humans). The early Late Miocene "Nakalipithecus nakayamai", described in 2007, and perhaps also its contemporary "Ouranopithecus", are basal members of this clade, not assignable to either the gorilla or the chimpanzee-humans lineage. They suggest that the Homininae tribes diverged not earlier than about 8 million years ago.fact|date = November 2007

A "hominin" is a member of the tribe Hominini, a "hominine" is a member of the subfamily Homininae, a "hominid" is a member of the family Hominidae, and a "hominoid" is a member of the superfamily Hominoidea.

References