What’s a Hominid? What’s a Hominin? Is there a difference?

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So! Today we are going to answer a very common question, and hopefully prevent any confusion going forward and to maybe educate. There are many people out there, including myself the other day, that gets them confused and, not by. intent, is giving out false information.

And we don’t want that! So lets get this straight once and for all.

What is a Hominid? What is a Hominin? Are they the same, different? How are you supposed to know?

It is sad, because this is a very important topic, that it is not talked about and explained more by formal schooling or just by looking things up.

So, lets make this simple! What is a Hominin:

A Hominin, is AMH (Anatomically Modern Humans), all and all of our extinct ancestors. So bipedal walking apes. All members of the Homo Genus, Australopithecus Genus, and Paranthropus Genus, belong to the Hominin family.

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So then, what is a Hominid? Well that gets a little more confusing, most likely due to the fact that the usage of the word has changed in the last 100 years. Originally it was interchangeable with Hominin. There was no difference, they meant the same thing.

But more recently taxonomists have been categorizing it as such:

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A Hominid is any Human, Human Ancestor, Cousin, and all of the Great Apes, and their ancestors etc. So when using the terms, Hominid is much more broad and includes many more species, where as Hominin is specifically for the Human Braided Stream.

I hope that was simple, and made sense! I hope this clears a few things up, and be sure to share around!

Its Always Time to Learn!