Great Apes

∞ generated and posted on 2016.11.05 ∞

Members of family Hominidae.

Great apes tend to live in well-treed environments, e.g., jungles. Humans are, of course, an exception. Family Hominidae includes the extant genera Pongo, Gorilla, Pan, and Homoorangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans, respectively – as well as a number of extinct animals both upright walking (particularly genus Australopithecus) and, presumably, knuckle walking.

Because most of the members of family Hominidae live in jungles, where fossilization tends to be poor, this family is not well documented in the fossil record, except for those species that lived (apparently) in less jungled environments. Most of latter seem to have been upright walkers rather than knuckle walkers (e.g., genera Australopithecus and Homo).


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