How Humans and Apes Are Different, and Why It Matters

Bibliographic Data

ID2226124
AuthorsA Fuentes (0000-0003-0955-8214, University of Notre Dame, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume74
Issue2
Pages151-167
Publication date2018-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Anthropological Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0091-7710 • E-ISSN: 2153-3806
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/697150
OpenAlexW2796077887
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited21

Humans are animals, mammals, primates, and hominoids, and thus we share extensive similarities with each of these groups, especially our closest cousins, the apes. But we are also hominins, specifically genus Homo, species sapiens. Understanding our evolutionary history is understanding both what we have in common with other primates and what happened over the past 7 to 10 million years since our divergence from the other African ape lineages. Or more specifically, what happened in the two-million-year history of our own genus. There is robust evidence that our lineage underwent significant changes in bodies, behavior, and ecologies across the Pleistocene, resulting in the development of a human niche. This essay outlines the deep similarities, and the critical differences, between humans and the apes and offers an anthropological and evolutionary explanation for why we should care

Biological evolution · Biology · Divergence (linguistics) · Evolutionary biology · Genus · Hominidae · Homo sapiens · Human evolution · Lineage (genetic) · Paleoanthropology · Sociology · Zoology · Anthropology · Human-Animal Interaction Studies · Paleontology · Philosophy · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Primate Behavior and Ecology

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