Homo
Searched as Homo erectus yuanmouensis n. ssp.. The Paleobiology Database treats Homo as the accepted name.
Homo is a genus of great ape that emerged from the genus Australopithecus, encompassing a single extant species, Homo sapiens, along with a number of extinct species classified as either ancestral or closely related to modern humans, collectively called archaic humans. Homo, together with the genus Paranthropus, is probably most closely related to the species Australopithecus africanus within Australopithecus. The closest living relatives of Homo are of the hominin genus Pan, with the ancestors of Pan and Homo estimated to have diverged around 5.7–11 million years ago during the Late Miocene.

Nahleghini · 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
- humanPBDB
- Sits inside
- HomininiPBDB
- Diet
- omnivorePBDB, for Hominidae
- Life habit
- ground dwellingPBDB, for Hominidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Time the record covers
At most 2.6 million years on record.
The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 2.58 Mya and 11.7 ka, which is a dating window rather than a span.
1 occurrence of Homo 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
1 occurrences- Pleistocene100%
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
1 formation
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The named rock units Homo has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Homo and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Homo and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
1,782 taxa- Equus65 sites
- Alcelaphini37 sites
- Kolpochoerus limnetes36 sites
- Tragelaphus strepsiceros36 sites
- Bovidae31 sites
- Hominidae30 sites
- Palaeoloxodon recki30 sites
- Reduncini30 sites
- Kobus sigmoidalis27 sites
- Hipparion25 sites
- Hippopotamus amphibius25 sites
- Panthera pardus25 sites
- Aepyceros melampus22 sites
- Ceratotherium simum22 sites
- Metridiochoerus andrewsi22 sites
- Adenota recki21 sites
- Gazella21 sites
- Giraffa21 sites
- Mammalia20 sites
- Panthera leo20 sites
- Suidae20 sites
- Sus scrofa20 sites
- Tragelaphini20 sites
- Paranthropus boisei19 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 223 sites for Homo, and this reads all 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
1 referenceEach of the 1 occurrence 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.
Media and terms
Media content2
Picture of Homo
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Nahleghini
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Licence
- CC Attribution
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Homo”
- 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 itHominini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1758