1. Late Pliocene
Homo
and Hominid Land Use from Western Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
2. The term “hominin” has replaced “hominid” for many English speakers. “Hominid” (a member of the Hominidae or family of humankind) has been used almost universally for the last century. Molecular data have shown that apes are genetically so close to living humans that it would be inappropriate for them to be classified as a separate family. Hence for many evolutionists apes are also hominids. To distinguish those hominids that are most closely related to humans many paleoanthropologists have adopted the tribe “Hominini” (conventionally shortened to hominin) within Hominidae. This usage is followed here. However numerous authorities continue to use “hominids” in the old sense. There is as yet no consensus.
3. Olduvai Gorge
4. Leakey M. D., Olduvai Gorge: Excavations in Beds I and II, 1960–1963 (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1971).
5. New partial skeleton of Homo habilis from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania