THE HUMAN FAMILY · LIVING REPORTS
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Sahelanthropus tchadensis
7–6 million years ago · Chad
A late Miocene ape known from a distorted cranium, jaws, teeth and limb material. It may lie near the human–chimpanzee divergence, but its precise position is unresolved.
Ardipithecus ramidus
4.5–4.3 million years ago · Ethiopia
A well-described early hominin combining terrestrial bipedality with extensive climbing adaptations.
Australopithecus afarensis
3.9–2.9 million years ago · Eastern Africa
One of the best-sampled early hominins, represented by Lucy, the Dikika child, numerous jaws and the Laetoli footprints.
Paranthropus boisei
2.3–1.2 million years ago · Eastern Africa
A robust-chewing hominin whose anatomy was once reduced to the misleading ‘Nutcracker Man’ stereotype.
Homo habilis
2.4–1.4 million years ago · Eastern and southern Africa
A variable early Homo grouping associated historically with larger brains and Oldowan tools.
Homo erectus
About 2.0 million–110,000 years ago · Africa and Eurasia
A long-lived, geographically widespread human lineage with modern-like body proportions and major behavioral diversity.
Homo naledi
335,000–236,000 years ago · South Africa
A small-brained Homo lineage with an unexpected mixture of ancestral and derived anatomy living during the Middle Pleistocene.
Middle Pleistocene Homo
773,000–300,000 years ago · Africa and Eurasia
A population-level framework replacing the assumption that every African and Eurasian fossil belongs to one uniform Homo heidelbergensis species.
Homo neanderthalensis
400,000–40,000 years ago · Europe and western Asia
A deeply adapted Eurasian human lineage with sophisticated technologies, social care and a living genetic legacy.
Denisovans
At least 300,000–50,000 years ago · Asia
An archaic human lineage first identified genetically and now connected to a growing but still limited fossil and protein record.
Homo floresiensis
About 100,000–60,000 years ago · Flores, Indonesia
A small-bodied, small-brained island human demonstrating a radically different evolutionary outcome within Homo.
Homo sapiens
About 300,000 years ago–present · African origin; global
The only living human species, emerging from structured African populations and later expanding globally while mixing with other lineages.