Hominoidea

Apes, collectively Hominoidea, are a superfamily of Old World simians native to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. They were more widespread in Africa, Asia, and Europe in prehistory, and, including humans, are found globally. Apes are more closely related to Old World monkeys than to the New World monkeys (Platyrrhini), with both Old World monkeys and apes placed in the clade Catarrhini. Apes do not have tails due to a mutation of the TBXT gene. In traditional and non-scientific use, the term ape can include tailless primates taxonomically considered Cercopithecidae, and is thus not equivalent to the scientific taxon Hominoidea. There are two extant branches of the superfamily Hominoidea: the gibbons, or lesser apes; and the hominids, or great apes.The family Hylobatidae, the lesser apes, include four genera and a total of 20 species of gibbon, including the lar gibbon and the siamang, all native to Asia. They are highly arboreal and bipedal on the ground. They have lighter bodies and smaller social groups than great apes. The family Hominidae (hominids), the great apes, includes four genera comprising three extant species of orangutans, two extant species of gorillas, two extant species of chimpanzees, and humans.

Hominoidea

Giles Laurent · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
apePBDB
Sits inside
CatarrhiniPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Primates
Life habit
arborealPBDB, for Primates
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 23 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 2 of 684 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 113 of 684 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 101 of 684 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 427 of 684 occurrencesPleistocene28–27 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 1 occurrence20–19 Mya — about 4 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 4 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 4 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 4 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 8 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 15 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 15 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 9 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 8 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 7 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 6 occurrences10–9.3 Mya — about 6 occurrences9.3–8.4 Mya — about 6 occurrences8.4–7.4 Mya — about 5 occurrences7.4–6.5 Mya — about 5 occurrences6.5–5.6 Mya — about 5 occurrences5.6–4.6 Mya — about 13 occurrences4.6–3.7 Mya — about 15 occurrences3.7–2.8 Mya — about 59 occurrences2.8–1.9 Mya — about 175 occurrences1.9–928 ka Mya — about 121 occurrences928 ka–0 Mya — about 186 occurrences23.04 Mya11.7 ka27.8 Mya0 Mya

684 occurrences of Hominoidea on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

684 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

68 formations

Koobi Fora — 3.90°N, 36.24°EKoobi Fora — 3.98°N, 36.32°EKoobi Fora — 3.86°N, 36.26°EKoobi Fora — 4.07°N, 36.37°EKoobi Fora — 3.87°N, 36.37°EKoobi Fora — 4.31°N, 36.28°EKoobi Fora — 4.23°N, 36.43°EKoobi Fora — 3.95°N, 36.42°EKoobi Fora — 4.31°N, 36.22°EKoobi Fora — 4.09°N, 36.31°EKoobi Fora — 3.59°N, 36.24°EKoobi Fora — 4.24°N, 36.26°EKoobi Fora — 3.77°N, 36.39°EShungura — 5.09°N, 36.02°EShungura — 5.15°N, 36.03°EShungura — 5.04°N, 36.02°EShungura — 5.09°N, 36.06°EHadar — 11.17°N, 40.58°EHadar — 11.12°N, 40.59°EHadar — 11.07°N, 40.77°EHadar — 11.00°N, 40.50°EMaboko — 0.13°S, 34.61°EMaboko — 0.17°N, 34.62°EMaboko — 0.15°N, 34.62°EOlduvai — 2.97°S, 35.32°EOlduvai — 2.98°S, 32.33°EOlduvai — 2.98°S, 35.37°EVogel River Series — 3.22°S, 35.22°EVogel River Series — 3.01°S, 35.20°EVogel River Series — 3.26°S, 35.20°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°ESwartkrans — 26.02°S, 27.72°ENachukui — 3.88°N, 35.71°ENachukui — 4.25°N, 35.79°ENachukui — 3.85°N, 35.76°ENachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°ENachukui — 3.08°N, 35.83°ENgorora — 0.90°N, 35.85°EChemeron — 0.67°N, 35.83°EChemoigut — 0.65°N, 36.20°EKapthurin — 0.50°N, 36.00°ETiim — 0.84°N, 35.82°EUpper Koru Series — 0.23°S, 35.34°ELothidok — 3.33°N, 35.75°ELothidok — 3.22°N, 35.83°EKanapoi — 2.37°N, 36.08°EKanapoi — 2.32°N, 36.07°ESagantole — 10.50°N, 40.58°ESagantole — 10.52°N, 40.47°ESterkfontein — 26.02°S, 27.73°EKromdraai — 26.00°S, 27.45°EKromdraai — 26.00°S, 27.75°EMakapansgat — 24.20°S, 28.95°ELegetet — 0.18°S, 35.27°EUnterer Travertin — 50.95°N, 11.38°EUnterer Travertin — 50.98°N, 11.31°EChinji — 32.82°N, 75.37°EIrrawaddy — 20.12°N, 95.13°EIrrawaddy — 19.85°N, 95.00°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Hominoidea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 44 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 244 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Hominoidea and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Hominoidea and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

884 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 505 sites for Hominoidea, and this reads 240 of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

293 references

Each of the 684 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 281 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Hominoidea

Credit
Giles Laurent
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Hominoidea was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itCatarrhini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gray 1825