Terminology

The terms given below are important to the study of human evolution, and are here to help better understand human evolution.

General Terms Related to Human Evolution

Evolution - Change through time, usually with reference to biological species, but may also refer to changes within cultural systems.

Natural selection - Evolutionary changes based on the different reproductive success of individuals within a species.

Fossil - The mineralized bone of an extinct animal. The remains of past life-forms.

Primate - Large-brained, mostly tree-dwelling mammals with three-dimensional color vision and grasping hands. Humans are primates.

Hominid - Modern human beings and our ancestors, generally defined as the primates who habitually walk erect. Technically, the members of the family Hominoidea.

Terms Related to Taxonomic Classification

Hominoidea - The taxonomic group or family that includes the human and ape members of the primates, both the fossil and modern forms.

Ardipithecus - A genus of the family Hominoidea characterized by hominids with the most apelike features.

Australopithecus - A genus of the family Hominoidea characterized by small-brained gracile hominids with mixed fruit/vegetable diet.

Paranthropus - A genus of the family Hominoidea characterized by small-brained robust hominids with a grassland vegetable diet.

Homo - A genus of the family Hominoidea characterized by large-brained hominids with an omnivorous diet

Terms Related to Locomotion

Bipedal - Walking on two legs.

Quadrupedal - Walking on all four legs.

Brachiation - Locomotion by swinging arm over arm.

Terms Related to the Skeleton

Foramen magnum - The hole in the base of the skull through which the spinal spinal cord emerges and around the outside of which the first vertebra articulates.

By:

Jared Langseth, 2006.