Hominin is the term that is preferred by most scientists for the unique evolutionary lineage of human ancestors, since the divergence of the human from the chimpanzee lineages. The previously employed term hominid referred to the family Hominidae, as opposed to the chimpanzee family Pongidae. Because of the genetic closeness of humans and chimpanzees, both are now classified in the family Hominidae. The term hominid, therefore, now refers to humans and chimpanzees (which includes the pygmy chimpanzee, or bonobo). The common ancestor of humans and chimps would look like a chimp to a human observer, because chimps have undergone fewer evolutionary changes of anatomy than have humans since the time of the common ancestor.

Homo sapiens is the only surviving hominin. This simple fact of history has permitted humans to consider themselves entirely separate from "the animals." Human uniqueness is of recent origin; for all but the last 20,000 years, two or more species of hominins have coexisted.

Hominin evolution corresponds closely to, and may have been stimulated by, climatic changes in Africa. When ice ages occurred in northern latitudes, droughts as well as cooler temperatures occurred in Africa, transforming forests into savannas. Periods of drier climate occurred about five million, 2.7 million, and 1.8 million years ago, which corresponded to the origin of hominins, of the genus Homo, and of advanced Homo (the immediate ancestors of H. sapiens), respectively. Part of the hominin adaptation to new climates was through technology. Technology (such as clothes and fire) allowed members of the genus Homo to live in cold climates. Many scientists consider this to be the first and only time that a species has migrated to an entirely different climate without evolving into another species. . .

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