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Human Evolution Chart - All the pieces in the hominid puzzle
The human evolution chart shown below provides basic information about each of
the various known hominids, and links to detailed articles on each. All the major players of hominid evolution are listed, together with the locations where they have been found and the approximate dates of their existence. Hominids for which earlier fossils are known appear higher up in the chart. Together, these various hominids represent the fossil evidence for evolution of humans and human ancestors (click here to read a history of how the idea originally arose that humans evolved from apes). Note that many of these forms overlapped in time (this is better seen in the human evolution timeline). For example, modern humans (Homo sapiens) and neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) existed concurrently for about 180,000 years. Likewise, Homo habilis and Homo erectus overlapped for about half a million years (Spoor et al. 2007). In the chart, thumbnail pictures of hominid skulls are shown in those cases where images are available (to see a larger view of a skull image, click on it).
HUMAN EVOLUTION CHART
SCIENTIFIC NAME
(click to access articles on hominids) | AGE
(mya) | LOCALITY
| PICTURE
(click to enlarge) |
| Sahelanthropus tchadensis | ~7.0 | Chad |  |
| Orrorin tugenensis | ~6.0 | western Kenya | no skull known |
| Ardipithecus kadabba | ~5.2 - 5.8 | Afar Depression, Ethiopia | no skull known |
| Ardipithecus ramidus | ~4.4 | Afar Depression, Ethiopia |  |
| Australopithecus anamensis | ~3.9 - 4.2 | Kenya | image not available |
| Australopithecus afarensis | ~2.7 - 4.0 | Afar Depression, Ethiopia |  |
| Australopithecus bahrelghazali | ~3.6 | Chad | No skull known |
| Kenyanthropus platyops | ~3.2 - 3.5 | northwestern Kenya |  |
| Australopithecus africanus | ~2.0 - 3.0 | South Africa |  |
| Paranthropus aethiopicus | ~2.4 - 2.7 | Omo River, s. Ethiopia
Kenya, w. of L. Turkana |  |
| Australopithecus garhi | ~2.5 | Afar Depression, Ethiopia | no intact skull known |
| Paranthropus boisei | ~1.1 - 2.6 | Tanzania |  |
| Homo habilis | ~1.44 - 2.5 | Africa |  |
| Paranthropus robustus | ~1.2 - 2.3 | South Africa |  |
| Homo erectus | ~0.4 - 2.0 | Africa, Java, China,
Caucasus |  |
| Homo rudolfensis | ~1.6-2.5* | Kenya |  |
| Homo georgicus | ~1.8 | Republic of Georgia |  |
| Homo ergaster | ~1.4 - 1.9 | e. and s. Africa |  |
| Homo antecessor | ~0.8 - 1.2 | Spain | no intact skull known |
| Homo cepranensis | ~0.8 - 0.9 | Italy | no skull known |
| Homo heidelbergensis | ~0.35 - 0.6 | Europe |  |
| Homo neanderthalensis | ~0.030 - 0.35 | Europe, w. Asia |  |
| Homo rhodesiensis | ~0.12 - 0.3 | Zambia |  |
| Homo floresiensis | ~0.013 - 0.09 | Flores, Indonesia |  |
| Homo sapiens | ~0.2 - present | Worldwide |  |
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*Skull KNM-ER 1470, assigned to H. rudolfensis, is at least 1.9 million years old and may date to as early as 2.5 mya.
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