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Human taxonomy is the classification of the human species (systematic name ''Homo sapiens'',
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
: "wise man") within zoological taxonomy. The systematic
genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
, ''
Homo ''Homo'' () is the genus that emerged in the (otherwise extinct) genus '' Australopithecus'' that encompasses the extant species ''Homo sapiens'' ( modern humans), plus several extinct species classified as either ancestral to or closely rela ...
'', is designed to include both anatomically modern humans and extinct varieties of
archaic humans A number of varieties of '' Homo'' are grouped into the broad category of archaic humans in the period that precedes and is contemporary to the emergence of the earliest early modern humans (''Homo sapiens'') around 300 ka. Omo-Kibish I (Omo I) f ...
. Current humans have been designated as subspecies ''Homo sapiens sapiens'', differentiated, according to some, from the direct ancestor, ''
Homo sapiens idaltu Herto Man refers to the 154,000 - 160,000-year-old human remains (''Homo sapiens'') discovered in 1997 from the Upper Herto member of the Bouri Formation in the Afar Triangle, Ethiopia. The discovery of Herto Man was especially significant at t ...
'' (with some other research instead classifying ''idaltu'' and current humans as belonging to the same subspecies). Since the introduction of systematic names in the 18th century, knowledge of
human evolution Human evolution is the evolutionary process within the history of primates that led to the emergence of '' Homo sapiens'' as a distinct species of the hominid family, which includes the great apes. This process involved the gradual developmen ...
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 ''Homo'' () is the genus that emerged in the (otherwise extinct) genus '' Australopithecus'' that encompasses the extant species ''Homo sapiens'' ( modern humans), plus several extinct species classified as either ancestral to or closely rela ...
'' as originating between two and three million years ago, divided into at least two species, archaic ''
Homo erectus ''Homo erectus'' (; meaning "upright man") is an extinct species of archaic human from the Pleistocene, with its earliest occurrence about 2 million years ago. Several human species, such as '' H. heidelbergensis'' and '' H. antecessor ...
'' and modern ''
Homo sapiens Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture ...
'', with about a dozen further suggestions for species without universal recognition. The genus ''Homo'' is placed in the
tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confl ...
Hominini The Hominini form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae ("hominines"). Hominini includes the extant genera ''Homo'' (humans) and '' Pan'' (chimpanzees and bonobos) and in standard usage excludes the genus ''Gorilla'' (gorillas). The ...
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 270px, '' valid name. Priority is a fundamental principle of modern botanical nomenclature and zoological nomenclature. Essentially, it is the principle of recognising the first valid application of a name to a plant or animal. There are two a ...
would imply the reclassification of chimpanzees as ''Homo paniscus'' (or similar). Categorizing humans based on
phenotypes In genetics, the phenotype () is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology or physical form and structure, its developmental processes, its biochemical and physiological prop ...
is a socially controversial subject. Biologists originally classified races as
subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics ( morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all specie ...
, 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 In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriat ...
and, if applicable,
subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics ( morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all specie ...
. Modern zoological taxonomy was developed by
Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...
during the 1730s to 1750s. He named the human species as ''
Homo sapiens Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture ...
'' in 1758, as the only member species of the genus ''Homo'', divided into several subspecies corresponding to the great races. The
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
noun '' homō'' (genitive ''hominis'') means "human being". The systematic name
Hominidae The Hominidae (), whose members are known as the great apes or hominids (), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: '' Pongo'' (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); ''Gorilla'' (the ...
for the
family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
of the great apes was introduced by
John Edward Gray John Edward Gray, FRS (12 February 1800 – 7 March 1875) was a British zoologist. He was the elder brother of zoologist George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray (1766–1828). The same is used f ...
(1825). Gray also supplied
Hominini The Hominini form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae ("hominines"). Hominini includes the extant genera ''Homo'' (humans) and '' Pan'' (chimpanzees and bonobos) and in standard usage excludes the genus ''Gorilla'' (gorillas). The ...
as the name of the
tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confl ...
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 The Piltdown Man was a paleoanthropological fraud in which bone fragments were presented as the fossilised remains of a previously unknown early human. Although there were doubts about its authenticity virtually from the beginning, the remains ...
" 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 ''Australopithecus'' (, ; ) is a genus of early hominins that existed in Africa during the Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene. The genus ''Homo'' (which includes modern humans) emerged within ''Australopithecus'', as sister to e.g. ''Australo ...
'' as a third genus, alongside ''Homo'' and ''Pan'', in the tribe Hominini is due to
Raymond Dart Raymond Arthur Dart (4 February 1893 – 22 November 1988) was an Australian anatomist and anthropologist, best known for his involvement in the 1924 discovery of the first fossil ever found of ''Australopithecus africanus'', an extinct hom ...
(1925). Australopithecina as a subtribe containing ''Australopithecus'' as well as ''
Paranthropus ''Paranthropus'' is a genus of extinct hominin which contains two widely accepted species: '' P. robustus'' and '' P. boisei''. However, the validity of ''Paranthropus'' is contested, and it is sometimes considered to be synonymous with ''Austr ...
'' (
Broom A broom (also known in some forms as a broomstick) is a cleaning tool consisting of usually stiff fibers (often made of materials such as plastic, hair, or corn husks) attached to, and roughly parallel to, a cylindrical handle, the broomstick. I ...
1938) is a proposal by Gregory & Hellman (1939). More recently proposed additions to the Australopithecina subtribe include '' Ardipithecus'' (1995) and ''
Kenyanthropus ''Kenyanthropus'' is a hominin genus identified from the Lomekwi site by Lake Turkana, Kenya, dated to 3.3 to 3.2 million years ago during the Middle Pliocene. It contains one species, ''K. platyops'', but may also include the 2 million year ...
'' (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 ''Homo heidelbergensis'' (also ''H. sapiens heidelbergensis''), sometimes called Heidelbergs, is an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human which existed during the Middle Pleistocene. It was subsumed as a subspecies of ''H. erectus'' in 1 ...
'' (Haeckel, 1895), ''
Sinanthropus ''Sinanthropus'' (from Sino-, "China", and anthro-, "man") is an archaic genus in the scientific classification system to which the early hominid fossils of Peking man, Lantian Man, Nanjing Man, and Yuanmou Man were once assigned. All of the ...
'' (Black, 1927), ''
Cyphanthropus ''Homo'' () is the genus that emerged in the (otherwise extinct) genus ''Australopithecus'' that encompasses the extant species ''Homo sapiens'' (modern humans), plus several extinct species classified as either ancestral to or closely related ...
'' (Pycraft, 1928) '' Africanthropus'' (Dreyer, 1935), '' Telanthropus'' (Broom & Anderson 1949), ''
Atlanthropus ''Homo ergaster'' is an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Africa in the Early Pleistocene. Whether ''H. ergaster'' constitutes a species of its own or should be subsumed into '' H. erectus'' is an ongoing and unresol ...
'' (Arambourg, 1954), ''
Tchadanthropus ''Homo'' () is the genus that emerged in the (otherwise extinct) genus ''Australopithecus'' that encompasses the extant species ''Homo sapiens'' (modern humans), plus several extinct species classified as either ancestral to or closely related ...
'' (Coppens, 1965). The genus ''Homo'' has been taken to originate some two million years ago, since the discovery of stone tools in
Olduvai Gorge The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge in Tanzania is one of the most important paleoanthropological localities in the world; the many sites exposed by the gorge have proven invaluable in furthering understanding of early human evolution. A steep-si ...
,
Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...
, in the 1960s. ''
Homo habilis ''Homo habilis'' ("handy man") is an extinct species of archaic human from the Early Pleistocene of East and South Africa about 2.31 million years ago to 1.65 million years ago (mya). Upon species description in 1964, ''H. habilis'' was highly ...
'' (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 The Hominini form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae ("hominines"). Hominini includes the extant genera ''Homo'' (humans) and '' Pan'' (chimpanzees and bonobos) and in standard usage excludes the genus ''Gorilla'' (gorillas). The ...
("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 ''Homo erectus'' (; meaning "upright man") is an extinct species of archaic human from the Pleistocene, with its earliest occurrence about 2 million years ago. Several human species, such as '' H. heidelbergensis'' and '' H. antecessor ...
'' 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''.


Subspecies


''Homo sapiens'' subspecies

The recognition or nonrecognition of
subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics ( morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all specie ...
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 Allopatric speciation () – also referred to as geographic speciation, vicariant speciation, or its earlier name the dumbbell model – is a mode of speciation that occurs when biological populations become geographically isolated from ...
and
sexual selection Sexual selection is a mode of natural selection in which members of one biological sex choose mates of the other sex to mate with (intersexual selection), and compete with members of the same sex for access to members of the opposite sex (in ...
. 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 Human genetic variation is the genetic differences in and among populations. There may be multiple variants of any given gene in the human population (alleles), a situation called polymorphism. No two humans are genetically identical. Even ...
. 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 The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America, North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. ...
,
West Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago ...
,
East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea ...
and
Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...
, 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 Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience and subculture that searches for and studies unknown, legendary, or extinct animals whose present existence is disputed or unsubstantiated, particularly those popular in folklore, such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness ...
), ''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 Linné'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 Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. While the ...
'' 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 Paleolithic Europe, or Old Stone Age Europe, encompasses the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age in Europe from the arrival of the first archaic humans, about 1.4 million years ago until the beginning of the Mesolithic (also Epipaleolithic) around 10,00 ...
'' 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 A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are ...
of ''H. sapiens'' by Wilson & Reeder (2005). These include: '' Homo grimaldii'' (Lapouge, 1906), '' Homo aurignacensis hauseri'' (Klaatsch & Hauser, 1910), ''Notanthropus eurafricanus'' (Sergi, 1911), ''Homo fossilis ''infrasp.'' proto-aethiopicus'' (Giuffrida-Ruggeri, 1915), '' Telanthropus capensis'' (Broom, 1917), '' Homo wadjakensis'' (Dubois, 1921), '' Homo sapiens cro-magnonensis, Homo sapiens grimaldiensis'' (Gregory, 1921), ''Homo drennani'' (Kleinschmidt, 1931), ''Homo galilensis'' (Joleaud, 1931) = ''Paleanthropus palestinus'' (McCown & Keith, 1932). Rightmire (1983) proposed ''
Homo sapiens rhodesiensis ''Homo heidelbergensis'' (also ''H. sapiens heidelbergensis''), sometimes called Heidelbergs, is an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human which existed during the Middle Pleistocene. It was subsumed as a subspecies of ''H. erectus'' in 1 ...
''. By the 1980s, the practice of dividing extant populations of ''Homo sapiens'' into subspecies declined. An early authority explicitly avoiding the division of ''H. sapiens'' into subspecies was '' Grzimeks Tierleben'', published 1967–1972. A late example of an academic authority proposing that the human racial groups should be considered taxonomical subspecies is John Baker (1974). The trinomial nomenclature ''Homo sapiens sapiens'' became popular for "modern humans" in the context of Neanderthals being considered a subspecies of ''H. sapiens'' in the second half of the 20th century. Derived from the convention, widespread in the 1980s, of considering two subspecies, ''H. s. neanderthalensis'' and ''H. s. sapiens'', the explicit claim that "''H. s. sapiens'' is the only extant human subspecies" appears in the early 1990s. Since the 2000s, the extinct ''
Homo sapiens idaltu Herto Man refers to the 154,000 - 160,000-year-old human remains (''Homo sapiens'') discovered in 1997 from the Upper Herto member of the Bouri Formation in the Afar Triangle, Ethiopia. The discovery of Herto Man was especially significant at t ...
'' (White ''et al.'', 2003) has gained wide recognition as a subspecies of ''Homo sapiens'', but even in this case there is a dissenting view arguing that "the skulls may not be distinctive enough to warrant a new subspecies name". '' H. s. neanderthalensis'' and '' H. s. rhodesiensis'' continue to be considered separate species by some authorities, but the 2010s discovery of genetic evidence of archaic human admixture with modern humans has reopened the details of taxonomy of archaic humans.


''Homo erectus'' subspecies

''
Homo erectus ''Homo erectus'' (; meaning "upright man") is an extinct species of archaic human from the Pleistocene, with its earliest occurrence about 2 million years ago. Several human species, such as '' H. heidelbergensis'' and '' H. antecessor ...
'' since its introduction in 1892 has been divided into numerous subspecies, many of them formerly considered individual species of ''Homo''. None of these subspecies have universal consensus among paleontologists. * ''
Homo erectus erectus Java Man (''Homo erectus erectus'', formerly also ''Anthropopithecus erectus'', ''Pithecanthropus erectus'') is an early human fossil discovered in 1891 and 1892 on the island of Java (Dutch East Indies, now part of Indonesia). Estimated to be b ...
'' (
Java Man Java Man (''Homo erectus erectus'', formerly also ''Anthropopithecus erectus'', ''Pithecanthropus erectus'') is an early human fossil discovered in 1891 and 1892 on the island of Java (Dutch East Indies, now part of Indonesia). Estimated to be b ...
) (1970s)In the 1970s a tendency developed to regard the Javanese variety of ''H. erectus'' as a subspecies, ''Homo erectus erectus'', with the Chinese variety being referred to as ''Homo erectus pekinensis''. See: Sartono, S
''Implications arising from Pithecanthropus VIII''
In: Paleoanthropology: Morphology and Paleoecology. Russell H. Tuttle (Ed.), p. 328.
* '' Homo erectus yuanmouensis'' (
Yuanmou Man Yuanmou Man (, ''Homo erectus yuanmouensis'') is a subspecies of ''H. erectus'' which inhabited the Yuanmou Basin in the Yunnan Province, southwestern China, roughly 1.7 million years ago. It is the first fossil evidence of humans in China, tho ...
) (Li et al., 1977) * ''
Homo erectus lantianensis Lantian Man (), ''Homo erectus lantianensis'') is a subspecies of ''Homo erectus'' known from an almost complete mandible from Chenchiawo (陈家窝) Village discovered in 1963, and a partial skull from Gongwangling(公王岭) Village discovered ...
'' (
Lantian Man Lantian Man (), ''Homo erectus lantianensis'') is a subspecies of ''Homo erectus'' known from an almost complete mandible from Chenchiawo (陈家窝) Village discovered in 1963, and a partial skull from Gongwangling(公王岭) Village discovered ...
) (Woo Ju-Kang, 1964) * ''
Homo erectus nankinensis Nanjing Man (''Homo erectus nankinensis'') is a subspecies of ''Homo erectus'' found in China. Large fragments of one male and one female skull and a molar tooth of ''H. e. nankinensis'' were discovered in 1993 in the Hulu Cave (葫芦洞) on the ...
'' ( Nanjing Man) (1993) * ''
Homo erectus pekinensis Peking Man (''Homo erectus pekinensis'') is a subspecies of ''H. erectus'' which inhabited the Zhoukoudian Cave of northern China during the Middle Pleistocene. The first fossil, a tooth, was discovered in 1921, and the Zhoukoudian Cave has ...
'' (
Peking Man Peking Man (''Homo erectus pekinensis'') is a subspecies of '' H. erectus'' which inhabited the Zhoukoudian Cave of northern China during the Middle Pleistocene. The first fossil, a tooth, was discovered in 1921, and the Zhoukoudian Cave has s ...
) (1970s) * '' Homo erectus palaeojavanicus'' (
Meganthropus ''Meganthropus'' is an extinct genus of non-hominin hominid ape, known from the Pleistocene of Indonesia. It is known from a series of large jaw and skull fragments found at the Sangiran site near Surakarta in Central Java, Indonesia, alongside ...
) (Tyler, 2001) * ''
Homo erectus soloensis Solo Man (''Homo erectus soloensis'') is a subspecies of ''H. erectus'' that lived along the Solo River in Java, Indonesia, about 117,000 to 108,000 years ago in the Late Pleistocene. This population is the last known record of the species. I ...
'' (
Solo Man Solo Man (''Homo erectus soloensis'') is a subspecies of ''H. erectus'' that lived along the Solo River in Java, Indonesia, about 117,000 to 108,000 years ago in the Late Pleistocene. This population is the last known record of the species. ...
) (Oppenoorth, 1932) * '' Homo erectus tautavelensis'' (
Tautavel Man Tautavel Man refers to the archaic humans which—from approximately 550,000 to 400,000 years ago—inhabited the Caune de l’Arago, a limestone cave in Tautavel, France. They are generally grouped as part of a long and highly variable lineag ...
) (de Lumley and de Lumley, 1971) * ''
Homo erectus georgicus The Dmanisi hominins, Dmanisi people, or Dmanisi man were a population of Early Pleistocene hominins whose fossils have been recovered at Dmanisi, Georgia. The fossils and stone tools recovered at Dmanisi range in age from 1.85–1.77 million y ...
'' (1991) * '' Homo erectus bilzingslebenensis'' (Vlček, 2002)Emanuel Vlček: ''Der fossile Mensch von Bilzingsleben'' (= ''Bilzingsleben. Bd. 6'' = ''Beiträge zur Ur- und Frühgeschichte Mitteleuropas'' 35). Beier & Beran, Langenweißbach 2002.


See also

*
Names for the human species In addition to the generally accepted Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic name ''Homo sapiens'' (Latin: "sapient human", Carl Linnaeus, Linnaeus 1758), other Latin-based names for the human species have been created to refer to various aspects of the h ...
*
Timeline of human evolution The timeline of human evolution outlines the major events in the evolutionary lineage of the modern human species, ''Homo sapiens'', throughout the history of life, beginning some 4 billion years ago down to recent evolution within ''H. sapiens ...


Footnotes


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{{Taxonbar, from=Q17146890
Taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...