Human Origins
Fossilized skeletal remains (cast of originals) of the famous specimen of Australopithecus afarensis known as Lucy. Image by “120” (Wikimedia Commons; Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license).
Hominins are an evolutionary group of species that includes, in part, the genera Homo (including our own species, Homo sapiens), Australopithecus, Paranthropus, and Ardipithecus. Hominins are a part of a larger evolutionary group called hominids (ending with a "d") that also includes the great apes (chimpanzees, bonobos gorillas, orangutans, and their ancestors).
To learn more about the evolutionary history of hominins, visit the videos of John Gurche telling the broad story of hominin evolution through his own artwork. John Gurche is one of the world's foremost authorities on artistic reconstructions of ancient hominins and is the artist-in-residence at the Paleontological Research Institution.
To learn more about some of the better-known species of hominins and to see 3-D models of their skulls, visit the Museum website page about hominin taxa. The page and associated 3-D model photographs were constructed by PRI staff and reviewed by paleoanthropologist Ryan McRae. The 3-D models can also be found on the Digital Atlas of Ancient Life Virtual Collection and on SketchFab, where they are hosted.