Hi
Is someone able to tell me what the members of the following:
Hominoidea (hominoids)
Hominidae (hominid)
Homininae
Hominini
Also, is it Homininae or Hominini that is referred to as hominin, and what is the other referred to as?
And when asked for a timeline for biological evolution, should this be the changes seen as species evolve (e.g. species X evolves x trait at year x), or the time at which the change occurred? As for cultural evolution, what should I be focusing on as key changes?
Thanks!
The Homonoids are members of superfamily hominoidea, composed of apes which are mainly distinguished from other primates by their lack of a tail, tendancies towards erectness, 5 cusped dentition and a relatively large brain.
The Homonids are members of family hominidae, composed of the great apes and typically have a more complex social behaviour. This includes orangutans in addion to those of the hominines.
The subfamily Homininae (the hominines) a characterized by ground dwelling and a larger cerebral cortex. These include gorillas, chimps and ourselves.
The tribe hominini (the hominins) are primarily defined by bipedalism and the morphological characteristics that support such (more central foramen magnum, large heel bone, 'S'-shaped spine. There is no consensus on whether the subtribe panini (chimps) belongs in this tribe or in its own. I think for the purpose of our course we consider it not included. If not, perhaps someone can correct me otherwise.
I think with reguards to biological evolution, you want to be talking about the evolution of different life forms (ie. first simple single celled life, first eukaryotic life forms, first plants...)
Personally I don't think you should worry too much about cultural evolution. I think you should know what it is and understand a couple of examples, thats all.
Hopefully this helped!