The Human Family Tree is an interactive tool that uses SVG graphics to provide a responsive view of human evolution and prehistory. It uses genetic data from thousands of modern and prehistoric people to identify nearly 27 million ancestors dating back over 100, 000 years ago. This tree represents the most common and widespread species of primate, Homo sapiens, and the last surviving species of the genus.
The human “family tree” may be better described as a “family bush”, where it is impossible to connect a full chronological series of species leading to Homo sapiens that experts can agree upon. Researchers from the University of Oxford’s Big Data Institute have taken a major step towards mapping the entirety of genetic relationships among humans: a single genealogy.
The family tree from the 18th century illustrates the surprising connections among our family trees. It is unclear where H. naledi fits in the Homo family tree, but it is likely evolving from H. erectus in Africa. Homo heidelbergensis was the first hominin to settle in colder environments.
Human evolution is articulated through classifications of and evolutionary relationships among hominin species. This article presents a basic taxonomy and phylogeny of the Human Family Tree, using SVG graphics to overlaid the image and provide scalable interaction with the background image.
In conclusion, the Human Family Tree is a powerful tool for understanding human evolution and the relationships between humans and their ancient ancestors.
| Article | Description | Site |
|---|---|---|
| Human Family Tree – Smithsonian’s Human Origins | Human Family Tree. The SVG graphics allow the Human Family Tree interactive to be responsive. SVG graphics are overlaid the image and provied scalable … | humanorigins.si.edu |
| The human family tree | Clues provided by fossilised teeth and bones have enabled scientists to identify many of our ancestors and to eliminate others from our ancestral family tree. | australian.museum |
| Human evolution | History, Stages, Timeline, Tree, Chart, & … | In fact, the human “family tree” may be better described as a “family bush,” within which it is impossible to connect a full chronological series of species, … | britannica.com |
📹 Your Place in the Primate Family Tree
Purgatorius, a kind of mammal called a plesiadapiform, might’ve been one of your earliest ancestors. But how did we get from a …
What Race Was The First Humans?
Homo habilis, known as "handy man," is one of the earliest humans, existing around 2. 4 to 1. 4 million years ago in Eastern and Southern Africa. Genetic studies, rather than just fossil evidence, provide insights into the migration and evolution of our species, Homo sapiens, which is believed to have originated in southern Africa roughly 300, 000 years ago. Yet, there are differing opinions on this timeline. Humans are classified as Homo sapiens, a species characterized by culture and bipedalism.
Genetic research indicates that our closest extinct relatives, the Neanderthals, share a common ancestor with us in Homo heidelbergensis. Throughout human evolution, climate changes greatly influenced development. Fossil evidence points to an Ethiopian origin for modern humans, who later dispersed globally. The hypothesis suggests that Homo sapiens began migrating out of Africa between 70, 000 and 100, 000 years ago, eventually interbreeding with Neanderthals. Our history reveals that the majority of human evolution and behavioral advancements occurred in Africa, with rising evidence from DNA contributions worldwide.
Who Are Most Humans Descended From?
Evidence indicates that modern humans originated from an African population of Homo sapiens that migrated out of Africa around 60, 000 years ago, with interbreeding occurring with local archaic populations, including Neanderthals and Denisovans. Genetic studies reveal that living non-Africans can trace their ancestry back to this pivotal migration, with Europeans and Australia's Aboriginal peoples as a part of this lineage. Previous theories posited that modern humans descended from a single population in Africa, but recent research published in Nature suggests that multiple genetically diverse populations contributed to the evolution of Homo sapiens. This analysis reveals a genealogical lineage where humans are more closely related than their genetic similarities indicate due to the manner in which genes are inherited. The evidence supports an 'Out of Africa' model, which presents human evolution as a continual process that has evolved from now-extinct species like Homo erectus. Humans share a common primate ancestor with chimpanzees but did not directly descend from them or any extant primates. The evolutionary journey of humans is ongoing and complex, showcasing a diverse and intertwined lineage that shapes our understanding of contemporary Homo sapiens and their evolutionary history within the broader context of life on Earth.
What Group Do Humans Today Belong To?
All contemporary humans belong to the species Homo sapiens, with the subspecies designation being Homo sapiens sapiens. Some classifications distinguish direct ancestral links, such as Homo sapiens idaltu, while others group them similarly. Humans exhibit unique characteristics, classifying them as part of the hominins, within the greater ape family, which includes orangutans, gorillas, bonobos, and chimpanzees. Evolving relatively recently, Homo sapiens developed complex cultures and technologies, facilitating global dispersion.
Genetic analysis shows Neandertal and Denisovan DNA contributions to modern human genomes, with evidence confirming humans as one of over 200 primate species. Variation among humans exists, reflecting differences in size, shape, skin tone, and eye color; however, similarities overwhelmingly surpass these variations. As highly social beings, humans typically engage in intricate networks of cooperation and competition. Modern biology categorizes humans within the order of Primates, highlighting them as the only remaining species of the genus Homo, following a diverse evolutionary lineage.
The origins of Homo sapiens remain a central topic in evolutionary biology, tracing back to a lineage split from chimpanzees. Thus, Homo sapiens encapsulates the entirety of today’s human experience, showcasing both diversity and unity within the species.
Who Are All Humans Related To?
In human genetics, Mitochondrial Eve (mt-Eve) refers to the most recent common maternal ancestor of all living humans, revealing that humanity is more closely related than perceived. Research by Peter Ralph confirms that all modern humans trace lineage back to one of two branches in humanity's family tree, supporting the "Out Of Africa" hypothesis, which posits that humans originated from Africa roughly 200, 000 years ago.
Geneticists highlight that every living person shares ancestors from the Identical Ancestors Point (IAP), leading to the assertion that all humans are cousins, with relationships extending to every plant and animal.
Mitochondrial Eve is paired with Y-Chromosomal Adam, not the first humans, but the most recent common paternal and maternal figures alive alongside many others. Genetic data indicates that a significant catastrophe impacted species around 100, 000 years ago. Thus, advancements in genetic research illuminate our shared ancestry and interconnectivity, emphasizing that all genes present in today's population can be traced to individuals living at the genetic isopoint. This interconnectedness posits that understanding our genetic history provides insight into the collective human experience and survival.
What Is The Ancestry Of Humans?
Humans and great apes, including chimpanzees (bonobos included) and gorillas, have a common ancestor from 8 to 6 million years ago. The evolution of humans, primarily in Africa, is a lengthy process wherein we diverged from apelike ancestors over approximately six million years, leading to distinct physical and behavioral traits. The Human Genome Project has significantly advanced our understanding of human ancestry, allowing comparisons of genomic data to trace our shared lineage.
Humans, scientifically classified as Homo sapiens, emerged as a culture-bearing species around 300, 000 years ago from older hominins like Homo erectus. Our evolutionary history has dramatically changed since the discovery of Lucy and is now supported by genomic studies that illustrate connections among various human ancestors. Factors like genetics and society are intertwined with ancestry, influencing cultural, religious, and political contexts.
Family trees of modern humans are complicated but reveal origins in Africa, where the majority of our species evolved. Understanding physical characteristics of extinct relatives, such as Neanderthals, further enhances our comprehension of human evolution, showcasing the impressive journey from early hominins like Sahelanthropus to present-day humans.
What Species Are Humans Descended From?
The origins of modern humans, Homo sapiens, have been a subject of extensive debate. Emerging in Africa within the last 200, 000 years, Homo sapiens evolved from the extinct Homo erectus. This evolutionary process involved significant developments such as bipedalism, dexterity, and complex language, alongside interbreeding with other hominins. Humans are categorized as primates, but they did not directly descend from monkeys or any extant primate; instead, they share a common ancestor with chimpanzees dating back 8 to 6 million years.
Fossil evidence indicates that early humans, living between 6 and 2 million years ago, resided solely in Africa. The species Homo sapiens, named by Carl Linnaeus in 1758, is the only surviving member of the genus Homo. Discoveries, including fossils like Lucy, have showcased bipedal walking in human ancestors over 3 million years ago. The prevalent "out of Africa" model asserts that modern humans evolved from Homo erectus in Africa before dispersing globally.
Genetic similarities indicate that Homo sapiens share nearly 99% of their DNA with chimpanzees and bonobos, confirming a close kinship. As the only currently existing species of the genus Homo, Homo sapiens illustrates a unique trajectory in human evolution, underscored by ancestral migrations and interactions within the broader hominid family.
What Family Group Are Humans In?
Humans belong to the family Hominidae, also known as hominids, which includes four living genera: chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, and humans. Human taxonomy classifies the species as Homo sapiens, meaning "wise man," with the systematic genus Homo encompassing both modern humans and extinct archaic humans. Current humans are identified as Homo sapiens sapiens. Socially, humans are complex beings that form various cooperating and competing groups, ranging from families to political entities.
Fossil and DNA evidence indicate that humans are part of the Primates order and nested within the great ape family, sharing a common ancestor with other apes that lived 6 to 8 million years ago. Human evolution illustrates the transition from now-extinct primates to our species, which is unique among bipedal primates. Around 40, 000 years ago, H. sapiens became the sole surviving member of a diverse group of bipedal primates.
Modern biology categorizes apes into lesser and great apes, and humans fall under the latter. Through classifications, we can trace the evolutionary relationships among hominin species, showcasing our place in the Human Family Tree, which can be interactively explored using SVG graphics.
What Family Did Humans Come From?
Humans, classified as Homo sapiens, are one of several living species of great apes, evolving alongside orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas. This evolutionary journey began around 7 million years ago when the lineages that led to humans and chimpanzees diverged from a common ancestor. The evolutionary tree branched out with gibbons and orangutans splitting first, followed by gorillas, and ultimately chimpanzees. Humans are distinct from these species but share a common ancestor with them, highlighting the interconnectedness of primates.
Modern humans emerged in Africa approximately 200, 000 years ago, evolving from earlier hominins like Homo erectus. The diversity of human ancestors has decreased significantly, with H. sapiens being the only surviving species from a once-varied family of bipedal primates. Fossils and DNA studies trace this complex family tree, illustrating the considerable changes our species has undergone over millions of years.
The study of human evolution remains an ongoing field of research, revealing insights into our origins and connections to other primates. Overall, human evolution reveals a lengthy and intricate process that has shaped Homo sapiens into the unique species we are today, responding to environmental changes and adapting over time.
What Ethnicity Was The First Human?
Scientists confirm that Homo sapiens evolved in Africa, with all today's humans tracing their genetic ancestry back to this continent. Genetic evidence, rather than fossil records, is key in understanding the migrations and evolution of our species and our extinct relatives. Early humans emerged in Africa around two million years ago, long before modern Homo sapiens appeared about 200, 000 years ago. The "Multiregional" model suggests that human ancestors migrated out of Africa and developed regional groups in various parts of the world.
Additionally, humans share a common ancestor with great apes, dating back 8 to 6 million years. The earliest known hominin, Sahelanthropus tchadensis, emerged around 7 to 6 million years ago in Chad. Our lineage likely comes from Homo heidelbergensis, a common ancestor of Neanderthals. Recent DNA studies indicate a population fragmentation model that implies a shared ancestral population existed about one million years ago in Africa.
Overall, both genetic and fossil evidence strongly support the theory that modern humans originated in Africa and later dispersed globally, with significant implications for understanding human origins and diversity.
📹 Are We All Related?
In part 3 of our special series on human ancestry, we investigate how closely related we all really are. Basic math tells us that all …
I don’t know if it’s important to many people, but we owe our ancestors every piece of life & joy we can obtain today, because they fought hard to survive in extreme conditions and adversities. I’m proud of being a part of their MIllion Years Heritage…the ancients that faced terrible times, they didn’t had our intellectual speed and brain power to understand what was happening…. Even that, they DID MAKE IT. We are here thanks to Them.
Jeez, this article should be part of the curriculum in all high schools. It would make biology and anthropology that much interesting and exciting ! This article is not far from being a work of genius, one can tell the amount of effort put into it, for instance the masterful summarising of a huge quantity of information into 12 mins, or the brilliant editing of images, diagrams, storytelling and verbal delivery . Seriously, this article could change the lives of teenager education and their enjoyment of natural sciences. Ps : the comedic choice of pictures of the apes and monkeys just takes this article to another level 😂
The script for this article is one of the best I’ve seen because it explains how we know what we know in a clear, logical, and readily understandable format. The illustrations are relevant and the characteristics described are things anyone could see if the look, say at a zoo, online, or in a museum. As an educator, I think this is one of the best the team at Eons has produced. Great job.
Simplifying us in just a frame is awesome but being a Wildlife science PhD scholar and being into taxonomy, I would really bow my head to all those researchers behind all those researches all these decades! Not easy,it’s filled with a pure dedication, passion and patience, and moreover the love for the field! HATSOFF! – A modern Homind!
“They’re basically built-in seat cushions” But this misses the most important part. The reason they’re so big, hairless and red is so that they can act as sexual signals. That is why they brighten during mating season and don’t attain their appearance until after puberty. The same is true of female human breasts, which are much larger than they need to be just to provide ample milk.
ahhh… just watched this for the third time (because i’m an addict and can’t wait for tuesday upload day), and it gave me the most massive urge to go out and find a monkey and give it a great big hug. i get depression a lot (no shame in that) and it made me feel good and part of things again. maybe if humans could spend more time hanging out around other primates (besides people), learning from them and how they live, instead of isolated in cubicles and cars and soulless commercial spaces, we could recover our roots. i think a lot of people feel quite disconnected from contemporary living. i know i do. but just perusal monkeys for the ten minutes this article lasted made me feel more connected. it somehow warms and rekindles ancient feelings deep inside. thank you Kallie, you wonderful ape, you! x ps. maybe a article on old world and new world monkeys is due? not that i just want an excuse to sit and watch monkeys for another ten minutes or anything…
I had to step the article and say this. I completely agree, I look a lot like my older sister but at my 21st a few weeks ago my other older sister took a picture of me and my cousin together and we looked so alike. Also awwww, that tiny tarsier is so adorable with those big yellow eyes and all that fluff. Did I mention it was adorable? Also lemurs.
One mammal just learned how to grab stuff, and walk. No, like, walk like that, and grab stuff at the same time. And bang rocks together to make pointed rocks “Ouch” And set things on fire “Yeouch” And make different sounds with their voice “Gneurshk” Which can mean different things ( “Hi” “Bye” “Can you hand me that rock over there?” ) THAT’S A HUMAN PERSON!
Thanks for this article. Very pleasant to watch. It nicely outlines exactly where we fit with our primate cousins, something I’ve always wondered about. But it is presented with a bit of a mystery that keeps us perusal — when will purgatorius appear? Our natural “this is not a creature I can identify with” attitude is set aside for the sake of the mystery, allowing us to dispassionately compare our traits with tarsiers and bonobos and all the other primates past & present. Way to go, PBS Eons!
Loved the article as always! You can really tell how much effort y’all put into researching and presenting the topics! I have a couple of topic requests. How do we study the behavior of extinct organisms? What was the first organism to purposefully make noise to communicate, and how has communication evolved since then?
This episode made me wonder how many of our ‘cousins’ were alive at the same time as us & if there are any identifiable factors that lead them to go extinct. The modern Extinction Event is one seriously important topic that I’d personally like to see covered: Whether directly from human activities, or indirectly through Man-Made Climate Change, there are tens of thousands of species (mostly plants & insects, though also including more sophisticated animals among jmammals & even primates) that are either threatened, or expected to go extinct within the next few decades.
This was somehow structured almost exactly like the movie Memento without being confusing. We got a little insight into the distant past, with tiny flashbacks to that scattered between an increasingly distant past starting from the present. Weird how it somehow made it less confusing and more engaging than just starting at a weird possum looking thing and working forward chronologically slowly until humans show up.
Hi PBS Eons I just wanted to congratulate you and Kallie for doing a phenomenal job on the topic of our primate family tree. Kallie is so informative and entertaining as well as the rest of the host’s. I have 2 questions I was hoping you could answer if you can. The first question is will you do a episode on the Prehistoric American 🦁, Prehistoric🐆 Jaguar?
QUESTION: While molecular clocks seem to explain how species diverge, what is the explanation of how many of these variations are attempted and failed ? Meaning what percentage of mutations that result in an new living organism succeed? This is also clearly a factor that contributes to natural selection. For example of we have x as rate for mutation per each new generation and y as rate of survival then to pass on a success mutation we know we need we need 1 / x.y number of generations to get a succesful mutaiton. Has any work that has taken this into account ?
So many avenues to suggest. So here are some; .Evolution of eyes .Potential future of human evolution .Evolution of language .An update on recent natural history discoveries and interesting new fields of study .evolutionary divisions of marine and freshwater life .Tardigrades… Just do Tardigrades! .Parasites I’m gonna leave you with those suggestions… for now! Thanks! I love this website.
It’s important to do these articles – especially for the american public – but when I watch Eons I hope I learn new things. Would have been cool to speak about some less well known “cousins”. For example, hominina are defined by a whole set of features (it’s not enough to just be bipedal, there are also other criteria), so there’s a bunch of fossils that has some features, but not all of them. Our family looks a lot more like bush than like this clean tree with distinct branches we see in this article. Classifying isn’t always as easy as some people may think it is when they’ll watch this article, and it can change depending on new findings but also on moving conventions.
EPISODE SUGGESTIONS: I like the depth and detail of this episode. It made me curious about the taxonomic hierarchy. When I was in college, there was no mention of domain and there was a debate about if we should have 2, 3 or 5 kingdoms. Even so, I was completely oblivious that there were any official subpartitions between species, genus, family and presumably all the way up. This brings me to my suggestions. I would like to see a series of episodes on taxonomy. You could start with an overview of all taxonomic systems throughout history (you may have done this already). In that or the next one you could state the system that PBS Eons subscribes to and the reasons why. The next episode would dissect the preferred taxonomic system in great detail, such that any future reference to a division, such as tribe, can be understood with a link back to that episode. Finally, link taxonomy with the eras and eons. Explore what evidence is needed to distinguish between two species, two families or two phyla and what are the earliest examples where we see each type of branching. It seems to me that you would need at least three episodes to tell this story, but depending on how deep you want to go (as for me, the deeper the better), there is no telling how far you can take it.
I’m kind of disappointed in this article. I know you don’t have time to go into great detail and that many casual viewers would be turned off by a highly technical explanation, but it is an interesting and complex discussion. Some plesiadapiforms did have nails, such as Carpolestes simpsoni which had a divergent big toe with a nail, and the pattern of cusps and crests on the molars of plesiadapiforms are similar to primates. Where do these traits come from? Are they shared from a common ancestor, or are they an example of convergent evolution? What is a primate? Studies indicate that plesiadapiforms are more closely related to primates than any other group. While derived species are certainly a different lineage than primates, one of the basal genera, Purgatorius for example, could be the last common ancestor between primates and plesiadapiforms. If so, why is it grouped with the later and not the former? I’m hardly an expert on the subject, but I do find it fascinating. While you did mention the common traits of primates and mentioned that Purgatorius may be the first primate, you failed to discuss any of the reasons why plesiadapiforms are grouped so closely with primates and why some do consider them to be part of the same group. It would be nice to hear the similarities between the groups, besides both being arboreal, as well as the differences.
Isn’t life amazing? As a child I was already interested in how things came to be. I still remember being about 10 and nagging my parents to buy me, a quite expensive, book about the evolution of men. That’s a long time ago… the book isn’t correct anymore because there have since then so much other bones and skeletons been found. Being curious about things is good thing and I’m kind of proud that we have such a little furry creature as ancestors. Wouldn’t it be amazing to be able to go back and see all these beings life ? Think about how beautiful earth must have been, that’s why we now have to do everything we can to keep it that way.
If I remember correctly, it used to be that the term “hominidae” referred only to the various “human” species, and the other great apes were put under “pongidae”. After decades of research, we have come to understand the evolutionary relationships more clearly, resulting in the cladogram shown in this article. Science, as always, is a process of putting away preconceptions through deeper understanding of nature. 🙂
2:11 the thing that bugs me about the “family tree” is that it never says what the common ancestor is. For example, Gorillas, Chimps and Humans are branches sharing common ancestor dots on the family tree, what animal is that dot meant to be that leads to Gorillas, Chimps and Humans? I guess the point is that current forms are on there so that’s the relevant information but I always want to know the dots when I see a family tree!
So basically our great^n mother was some sort of Tetrapod and its grand^n child was some sort of Synapsid and we all share the same lineage all the way down to some human, and my most distant living human cousin is probably some indigenous African tribe child, and everyone in 3000 years will have one single human female ancestor that is alive right now.
Thanks! There is a problem with the explanation of the molecular clock: There was no specification as to what that reference-fossil (mu) is and how it relates to A and B. Obviously, being able to pick any fossil (like an amniote) would be absurd, since the calculation would become dependent on the fossil in question. So in what relation does the mu-fossil stand to species A and B? It cannot be the lca, otherwise the calculation would be unnecessary. But if it is a common ancestor, there are two further assumptions involved: That the rate of mutation is fairly homogenous, at least across the phylogenetic neighbourhood. That the common ancestor has already been established as such, so that the molecular clock is dependent on the existing taxonomical research. Thank you for clarifying and for all these insightful articles! All the best.
very informative. very well presented for a complex topic, you could have spent more time on it, for sure. Im not sure if you have done a article on the ancestry of the crocodiles and alligators, some walked on the ground with long legs. I would like to know the time/types/environment/regions lived. I think they call them crocodilomorphs (spelling may be wrong), like Baurusucus (sp may be wrong). Thanks and keep up the great work. Let me know if you already made a croc-morph article. Cheers.
You are witnessing the last gasp of the older pre-phylogenetic taxonomy. Pretty soon all that Tribe, Subfamily, Family, Superfamily, Parvorder, Infraorder, Suborder, Order junk, replaced by just Clades, at least down to the Genus. I remember 40 years ago reading about the new revolutionaries of phylogenetics and how it would never break the old Linnaean way of reckoning. It only took it a bit more than a generation.
Beautiful! Thanks a lot. Primates evolved in forests. Much later, apes (hominoids) evolved in swamp forests, wading bipedally + climbing arms overhead: apes have more vertical spines than other primates (incl.monkeys), loss of tail, larger body, longer arms etc. Google – “aquarboreal” (aqua=water, arbor=tree), – “Lucy was no human ancestor PPT”.
I’m just a warehouse worker, but I always asked myself: Why are we humans, out of all primate species, the most adapted to aquatic environments? We lack the fur, we practice apnea like whales and dolphins, we have interdigital membranes and even our nostrils face a different direction from all of the other primates. Why does no one talks about these physiological traits? Could it be the adaptation to an aquatic environment that made us so different from every other species? How long did these transformations happened? So many questions and no one to answer them…
Latest studies show that non-coding genomes are really not that silent. For example, non-coding DNA in intron located near loci modulating heart function actually produce micro-RNA that can down-modulate messenger -RNA transcribed from that regulatory loci. Varieties among these non-coding DNA influence whether organism survive heart accident or not among other things. Thus, it is highly probable that it is selected for. This should call the mollecular clock’s validity and accuracy into questions.
Love this website – it’s epic, or should that be epoch? 😉 Anyway, this is something I’ve wondered about for a while now…you know how a lot of birds ‘bob’ or ‘jerk’ their heads as they walk? The Mick Jagger strut. Is this a trait that may have been evident in avian dinosaurs? Did T-Rex strut about the place like Jagger??