Early Hominins

Hominoid

All apes and humans

Hominin

Modern humans, extinct human species, and immediate ancestors

Bipedalism

One of the two key evolutionary trends that involves walking on two legs

Non-Honing Chewing

One of the two key evolutionary traits that involves different teeth than our ancestors

Foramen Magnum

The giant hole in the bottom of the skull that connects the spinal cord to the brain

Valgus Angle

The knee

Long femoral neck

A product of the valgus angle (knee)

Pre-Australopithecines

A group characterized by a mix of ape and human features, included things such as long arms, offset big toes, long fingers, shortened pelvis, and was bipedal

Ardipithecus (Ardi)

An ancient hominin during the pre-australopithecines that was completely bipedal, but was missing some key traits

Australopithecines

A group of early hominins known for showing significant use of bipedal locomotion, while still featuring small brain sizes. Lucy is a famous fossil

Later Australopithecines

Early hominins that featured robust jaws, flared cheek bones, walked completely bipedally, featured an arches foot, meaning they were very close to us