Re: What is a hominid?
Herb Huston (huston@access3.digex.net)
13 Mar 1995 23:05:25 -0500
In article <3k27p4$27n@jupiter.wichitaks.hmpd.com>,
Jim Foley <jimf@vangelis.FtCollins.NCR.com> wrote:
}The commonest definition of a hominid I have seen is: anything on our
}side of the last common ancestor of us and any of the living apes. I've
}read in a couple of places recently that some scientists are using a new
}broader definition that would include at least chimps and gorillas.
And orangutans, too.
}I'd like to know if this change is widely accepted yet, and the purpose
}behind it.
It has become more difficult to justify the placement of _Pan_, _Gorilla_,
and _Pongo_ in one family and _Homo_ in another.
} What is difference between the new definition of hominids,
}and that of hominoids (apes)?
Family Pongidae would be abolished and its members moved into Hominidae.
Here's a rough outline:
Superfamily Hominoidea
Family Proconsulidae
Family Hylobatidae - gibbons and siamangs
Family Hominidae
Subfamily Dryopithecinae
Tribe Afropithecini
Tribe Dryopithecini
Tribe Kenaypithecini
Subfamily Ponginae
Tribe Sivapithecini
Tribe Pongini - orangutans
Subfamily Homininae
Tribe Gorillini - gorillas
Tribe Hominini - chimps, bonobos, and humans
For details, see Peter Andrews, "Evolution and Environment in the
Hominoidea," _Nature_ 360:641-6 (17 December 1992).
-- Herb Huston
-- huston@access.digex.net
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