6. Archaic and transitional hominins

Abstract

‘Archaic and transitional hominins’ considers the fossil species that almost certainly belong to the hominin clade, but which are still a long way from being like modern humans. The fossils that share more of their morphology with modern humans than they do with chimpanzees and bonobos, yet do not show the changes in jaw and tooth size and in body size and shape that characterize hominin species we are more comfortable with, including within our own genus Homo, are called ‘archaic’ hominins. The group of hominins that seem to be part archaic hominin and part Homo are called ‘transitional’ hominins.