human taxonomy human taxonomy human taxonomy is the classification of the human species (systematic name homo sapiens, latin: "wise man") within zoological taxonomy. the systematic genus, homo, is designed to include both anatomically modern humans and extinct varieties of archaic humans. current humans have been designated as subspecies homo sapiens sapiens, differentiated, according to some, from the direct ancestor, homo sapiens idaltu (with some other research instead classifying idaltu and current humans as belonging to the same subspecies). homo ("humans")temporal range: piacenzian-present, scientific classification kingdom: animalia phylum: chordata class: mammalia order: primates suborder: haplorhini infraorder: simiiformes family: hominidae subfamily: homininae tribe: hominini genus: homolinnaeus, 1758 type species homo sapienslinnaeus, 1758 species homo sapiens homo sapiens sapiens †homo antecessor †homo erectus †homo ergaster †homo floresiensis †homo habilis †homo heidelbergensis †homo luzonensis †homo rudolfensis †homo naledi †homo neanderthalensis other species or subspecies suggested synonyms synonyms africanthropus dreyer, 1935 atlanthropus arambourg, 1954 cyphanthropus pycraft, 1928 pithecanthropus dubois, 1894 protanthropus haeckel, 1895 sinanthropus black, 1927 tchadanthropus coppens, 1965 telanthropus broom & anderson 1949 the taxonomic classification of humans following john edward gray (1825). since the introduction of systematic names in the 18th century, knowledge of human evolution has increased drastically, and a number of intermediate taxa have been proposed in the 20th and early 21st centuries. the most widely accepted taxonomy grouping takes the genus homo as originating between two and three million years ago, divided into at least two species, archaic homo erectus and modern homo sapiens, with about a dozen further suggestions for species without universal recognition. the genus homo is placed in the tribe hominini alongside pan (chimpanzees). the two genera are estimated to have diverged over an extended time of hybridization, spanning roughly 10 to 6 million years ago, with possible admixture as late as 4 million years ago. a subtribe of uncertain validity, grouping archaic "pre-human" or "para-human" species younger than the homo-pan split, is australopithecina (proposed in 1939). a proposal by wood and richmond (2000) would introduce hominina as a subtribe alongside australopithecina, with homo the only known genus within hominina. alternatively, following cela-conde and ayala (2003), the "pre-human" or "proto-human" genera of australopithecus, ardipithecus, praeanthropus, and possibly sahelanthropus, may be placed on equal footing alongside the genus homo. an even more extreme view rejects the division of pan and homo as separate genera, which based on the principle of priority would imply the reclassification of chimpanzees as homo paniscus (or similar). categorizing humans based on phenotypes is a socially controversial subject. biologists originally classified races as subspecies, but contemporary anthropologists reject the concept of race as a useful tool to understanding humanity, and instead view humanity as a complex, interrelated genetic continuum. taxonomy of the hominins continues to evolve. history human taxonomy on one hand involves the placement of humans within the taxonomy of the hominids (great apes), and on the other the division of archaic and modern humans into species and, if applicable, subspecies. modern zoological taxonomy was developed by carl linnaeus during the 1730s to 1750s. he was the first to develop the idea that, like other biological entities, groups of people could too share taxonomic classifications. he named the human species as homo sapiens in 1758, as the only member species of the genus homo, divided into several subspecies corresponding to the great races. the latin noun homō (genitive hominis) means "human being". the systematic name hominidae for the family of the great apes was introduced by john edward gray (1825). gray also supplied hominini as the name of the tribe including both chimpanzees (genus pan) and humans (genus homo). the discovery of the first extinct archaic human species from the fossil record dates to the mid 19th century: homo neanderthalensis, classified in 1864. since then, a number of other archaic species have been named, but there is no universal consensus as to their exact number. after the discovery of h. neanderthalensis, which even if "archaic" is recognizable as clearly human, late 19th to early 20th century anthropology for a time was occupied with finding the supposedly "missing link" between homo and pan. the "piltdown man" hoax of 1912 was the fraudulent presentation of such a transitional species. since the mid-20th century, knowledge of the development of hominini has become much more detailed, and taxonomical terminology has been altered a number of times to reflect this. the introduction of australopithecus as a third genus, alongside homo and pan, in the tribe hominini is due to raymond dart (1925). australopithecina as a subtribe containing australopithecus as well as paranthropus (broom 1938) is a proposal by gregory & hellman (1939). more recently proposed additions to the australopithecina subtribe include ardipithecus (1995) and kenyanthropus (2001). the position of sahelanthropus (2002) relative to australopithecina within hominini is unclear. cela-conde and ayala (2003) propose the recognition of australopithecus, ardipithecus, praeanthropus, and sahelanthropus (the latter incertae sedis) as separate genera. other proposed genera, now mostly considered part of homo, include: pithecanthropus (dubois, 1894), protanthropus (haeckel, 1895), sinanthropus (black, 1927), cyphanthropus (pycraft, 1928) africanthropus (dreyer, 1935), telanthropus (broom & anderson 1949), atlanthropus (arambourg, 1954), tchadanthropus (coppens, 1965). the genus homo has been taken to originate some two million years ago, since the discovery of stone tools in olduvai gorge, tanzania, in the 1960s. homo habilis (leakey et al., 1964) would be the first "human" species (member of genus homo) by definition, its type specimen being the oh 7 fossils. however, the discovery of more fossils of this type has opened up the debate on the delineation of h. habilis from australopithecus. especially, the ld 350-1 jawbone fossil discovered in 2013, dated to 2.8 mya, has been argued as being transitional between the two. it is also disputed whether h. habilis was the first hominin to use stone tools, as australopithecus garhi, dated to c. 2.5 mya, has been found along with stone tool implements. fossil knm-er 1470 (discovered in 1972, designated pithecanthropus rudolfensis by alekseyev 1978) is now seen as either a third early species of homo (alongside h. habilis and h. erectus) at about 2 million years ago, or alternatively as transitional between australopithecus and homo. wood and richmond (2000) proposed that gray's tribe hominini ("hominins") be designated as comprising all species after the chimpanzee–human last common ancestor by definition, to the inclusion of australopithecines and other possible pre-human or para-human species (such as ardipithecus and sahelanthropus) not known in gray's time. in this suggestion, the new subtribe of hominina was to be designated as including the genus homo exclusively, so that hominini would have two subtribes, australopithecina and hominina, with the only known genus in hominina being homo. orrorin (2001) has been proposed as a possible ancestor of hominina but not australopithecina. designations alternative to hominina have been proposed: australopithecinae (gregory & hellman 1939) and preanthropinae (cela-conde & altaba 2002); species at least a dozen species of homo other than homo sapiens have been proposed, with varying degrees of consensus. homo erectus is widely recognized as the species directly ancestral to homo sapiens. most other proposed species are proposed as alternatively belonging to either homo erectus or homo sapiens as a subspecies. this concerns homo ergaster in particular. one proposal divides homo erectus into an african and an asian variety; the african is homo ergaster, and the asian is homo erectus sensu stricto. (inclusion of homo ergaster with asian homo erectus is homo erectus sensu lato.) there appears to be a recent trend, with the availability of ever more difficult-to-classify fossils such as the dmanisi skulls (2013) or homo naledi fossils (2015) to subsume all archaic varieties under homo erectus. comparative table of homo lineages lineages temporal range(kya) habitat adult height adult mass cranial capacity(cm3) fossil record discovery publicationof name h. habilismembership in homo uncertain 2,100–1,500 tanzania 110–140 cm (3 ft 7 in – 4 ft 7 in) 33–55 kg (73–121 lb) 510–660 many 1960 1964 h. rudolfensismembership in homo uncertain 1,900 kenya 700 2 sites 1972 1986 h. gautengensisalso classified as h. habilis 1,900–600 south africa 100 cm (3 ft 3 in) 3 individuals 2010 2010 h. erectus 1,900–140 africa, eurasia 180 cm (5 ft 11 in) 60 kg (130 lb) 850 (early) – 1,100 (late) many 1891 1892 h. ergasterafrican h. erectus 1,800–1,300 east and southern africa 700–850 many 1949 1975 h. antecessor 1,200–800 western europe 175 cm (5 ft 9 in) 90 kg (200 lb) 1,000 2 sites 1994 1997 h. heidelbergensisearly h. neanderthalensis 600–300 europe, africa 180 cm (5 ft 11 in) 90 kg (200 lb) 1,100–1,400 many 1907 1908 h. cepranensisa single fossil, possibly h. heidelbergensis c. 450 italy 1,000 1 skull cap 1994 2003 h. longi 309–138 northeast china 1,420 1 individual 1933 2021 h. rhodesiensisearly h. sapiens c. 300 zambia 1,300 single or very few 1921 1921 h. naledi c. 300 south africa 150 cm (4 ft 11 in) 45 kg (99 lb) 450 15 individuals 2013 2015 h. sapiens(anatomically modern humans) c. 300–present worldwide 150–190 cm (4 ft 11 in – 6 ft 3 in) 50–100 kg (110–220 lb) 950–1,800 (extant) —— 1758 h. neanderthalensis 240–40 europe, western asia 170 cm (5 ft 7 in) 55–70 kg (121–154 lb)(heavily built) 1,200–1,900 many 1829 1864 h. floresiensisclassification uncertain 190–50 indonesia 100 cm (3 ft 3 in) 25 kg (55 lb) 400 7 individuals 2003 2004 nesher ramla homoclassification uncertain 140–120 palestine several individuals 2021 h. tsaichangensispossibly h. erectus or denisova c. 100 taiwan 1 individual 2008(?) 2015 h. luzonensis c. 67 philippines 3 individuals 2007 2019 denisova hominin 40 siberia 2 sites 2000 2010 subspecies homo sapiens subspecies further information: interbreeding between archaic and modern humans, early modern human, and race and genetics 1737 painting of carl linnaeus wearing a traditional sami costume. linnaeus is sometimes named as the lectotype of both h. sapiens and h. s. sapiens. the recognition or nonrecognition of subspecies of homo sapiens has a complicated history. the rank of subspecies in zoology is introduced for convenience, and not by objective criteria, based on pragmatic consideration of factors such as geographic isolation and sexual selection. the informal taxonomic rank of race is variously considered equivalent or subordinate to the rank of subspecies, and the division of anatomically modern humans (h. sapiens) into subspecies is closely tied to the recognition of major racial groupings based on human genetic variation. a subspecies cannot be recognized independently: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or at least two (including any that are extinct). therefore, the designation of an extant subspecies homo sapiens sapiens only makes sense if at least one other subspecies is recognized. h. s. sapiens is attributed to "linnaeus (1758)" by the taxonomic principle of coordination. during the 19th to mid-20th century, it was common practice to classify the major divisions of extant h. sapiens as subspecies, following linnaeus (1758), who had recognized h. s. americanus, h. s. europaeus, h. s. asiaticus and h. s. afer as grouping the native populations of the americas, west eurasia, east asia and sub-saharan africa, respectively. linnaeus also included h. s. ferus, for the "wild" form which he identified with feral children, and two other "wild" forms for reported specimens now considered very dubious (see cryptozoology), h. s. monstrosus and h. s. troglodytes. there were variations and additions to the categories of linnaeus, such as h. s. tasmanianus for the native population of australia. bory de st. vincent in his essai sur l'homme (1825) extended linnaeus's "racial" categories to as many as fifteen: leiotrichi ("smooth-haired"): japeticus (with subraces), arabicus, iranicus, indicus, sinicus, hyperboreus, neptunianus, australasicus, columbicus, americanus, patagonicus; oulotrichi ("crisp-haired"): aethiopicus, cafer, hottentotus, melaninus. similarly, georges vacher de lapouge (1899) also had categories based on race, such as priscus, spelaeus (etc.). homo sapiens neanderthalensis was proposed by king (1864) as an alternative to homo neanderthalensis. there have been "taxonomic wars" over whether neanderthals were a separate species since their discovery in the 1860s. pääbo (2014) frames this as a debate that is unresolvable in principle, "since there is no definition of species perfectly describing the case." louis lartet (1869) proposed homo sapiens fossilis based on the cro-magnon fossils. there are a number of proposals of extinct varieties of homo sapiens made in the 20th century. many of the original proposals were not using explicit trinomial nomenclature, even though they are still cited as valid synonyms of