Great Ape

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A Great Ape is an placental mammal descended from an arboreally adapted African ape that lived ~22 million years ago.

References

2023

  • (Wikipedia, 2023) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hominidae Retrieved:2023-7-16.
    • The Hominidae (/hɒˈmɪnɪdiː/), whose members are known as the great apes[1][2] or hominids (/ˈhɒmɪnɪdz/), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: Pongo (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); Gorilla (the eastern and western gorilla); Pan (the chimpanzee and the bonobo); and Homo, of which only modern humans (Homo sapiens) remain.[3]

      Several revisions in classifying the great apes have caused the use of the term hominid to vary over time. The original meaning of "hominid" referred only to humans (Homo) and their closest extinct relatives. However, by the 1990s humans, apes, and their ancestors were considered to be "hominids". The earlier restrictive meaning has now been largely assumed by the term hominin, which comprises all members of the human clade after the split from the chimpanzees (Pan). The current meaning of "hominid" includes all the great apes including humans. Usage still varies, however, and some scientists and laypersons still use "hominid" in the original restrictive sense; the scholarly literature generally shows the traditional usage until the turn of the 21st century.[4]

      Within the taxon Hominidae, a number of extant and known extinct, that is, fossil, genera are grouped with the humans, chimpanzees, and gorillas in the subfamily Homininae; others with orangutans in the subfamily Ponginae (see classification graphic below). The most recent common ancestor of all Hominidae lived roughly 14 million years ago,[5] when the ancestors of the orangutans speciated from the ancestral line of the other three genera.[6] Those ancestors of the family Hominidae had already speciated from the family Hylobatidae (the gibbons), perhaps 15 to 20 million years ago.[6][7]

      Due to the close genetic relationship between humans and the other great apes, certain animal rights organizations, such as the Great Ape Project, argue that nonhuman great apes are persons and should be given basic human rights. Twenty-nine countries have instituted research bans to protect great apes from any kind of scientific testing.[8]

  1. ↑ Note 1: "Great ape" is a common name rather than a taxonomic label, and there are differences in usage, even by the same author. The term may or may not include humans, as when Dawkins writes "Long before people thought in terms of evolution ... great apes were often confused with humans" and "gibbons are faithfully monogamous, unlike the great apes which are our closer relatives." (Dawkins (2005), p.126
  2. ↑ Dawkins, R., The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life, 2005, Phoenix (Orion Books), London, England, ISBN: 978-0-7538-1996-8, Page 114.
  3. ↑ Groves, C. P. (2005). Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 181–184. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. OCLC 62265494.
  4. ↑ Morton, Mary, Hominid vs. hominin, Earth Magazine, Retrieved from [1], Accessed on 17 July 2017.
  5. ↑ Andrew Hill, Steven Ward, Origin of the Hominidae: The Record of African Large Hominoid Evolution Between 14 My and 4 My, 1988, Yearbook of Physical Anthropology, Vol. 31, Issue 59, pp. 49–83, doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330310505.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Dawkins R (2004) The Ancestor's Tale.
  7. ↑ Temple University, Query: Hominidae/Hylobatidae, 2015, TimeTree, Retrieved from [2], Accessed on 28 December 2017.
  8. ↑ Release & Restitution for Chimpanzees, International Bans! Laws! Release & Restitution for Chimpanzees, releasechimps.org, access-date: 2020-12-19.
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