hominin
/ˈhɒmənɪn
/noun Zoology
A primate of a taxonomic tribe (Hominini), which comprises those species regarded as human, directly ancestral to humans, or very closely related to humans: fossil footprints reveal the height of ancient homininsPaabo has shown there was interbreeding between, at the present count, four distinct lines of hominin....
Some consider the tribe Hominini to include only the genera Homo and Australopithecus and their extinct relatives, thus making hominin equivalent to hominid (see hominid). Others define the tribe so as to include the chimpanzees, and sometimes also the gorillas.
- Answers to the ancestry question could come from studying hominin fossils from Africa, the researchers say.
- East African hominins may have suffered during dust storms, particularly from particles carried in by winds from the Arabian peninsula.
Origin
1980s: from modern Latin Hominini, from Latin homo, homin- 'man'.