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The first member of the genus Homo to be hairless was Homo erectus, originating about 1.6 million years ago. [6] The dissipation of body heat remains the most widely accepted evolutionary explanation for the loss of body hair in early members of the genus Homo , the surviving member of which is modern humans.
Homo erectus (/ ˌ h oʊ m oʊ ə ˈ r ɛ k t ə s / lit. ' upright man ') is an extinct species of archaic human from the Pleistocene, spanning nearly 2 million years.It is the first human species to evolve a humanlike body plan and gait, to leave Africa and colonize Asia and Europe, and to wield fire.
Homo erectus derives from early Homo or late Australopithecus. Homo habilis , although significantly different of anatomy and physiology, is thought to be the ancestor of Homo ergaster , or African Homo erectus ; but it is also known to have coexisted with H. erectus for almost half a million years (until about 1.5 Ma).
The hominoids are descendants of a common ancestor.. Homo sapiens is a distinct species of the hominid family of primates, which also includes all the great apes. [1] Over their evolutionary history, humans gradually developed traits such as bipedalism, dexterity, and complex language, [2] as well as interbreeding with other hominins (a tribe of the African hominid subfamily), [3] indicating ...
They are believed to have begun approximately 2 million years ago with the early expansions out of Africa by Homo erectus. This initial migration was followed by other archaic humans including H. heidelbergensis , which lived around 500,000 years ago and was the likely ancestor of Denisovans and Neanderthals as well as modern humans.
However, other Hominidae species, now extinct, may have also worn clothes and appear to have migrated earlier. [11] It follows that the lice which presently infest human clothing may have first been acquired by Homo sapiens in colder climates from the bodies or discarded clothing of these cousin hominins.
The extinct species Homo floresiensis has long puzzled experts. A new analysis offers clues to the mystery of this tiny oddball’s place on the human family tree.
Homo (from Latin homō 'human') is a genus of great ape (family Hominidae) that emerged from the genus Australopithecus and encompasses only a single extant species, Homo sapiens (modern humans), along with a number of extinct species (collectively called archaic humans) classified as either ancestral or closely related to modern humans; these include Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis.