Editing Human evolution (section)

=== Early evolution of primates ===
{{See also|Evolution of primates}}
The evolutionary history of primates can be traced back 65&nbsp;million years.{{sfn|Maxwell|1984|p=296}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zhang |first1=Rui |last2=Wang |first2=Yin-Qiu |last3=Su |first3=Bing |date=July 2008 |title=Molecular Evolution of a Primate-Specific microRNA Family |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |volume=25 |issue=7 |pages=1493–1502 |doi=10.1093/molbev/msn094 |issn=0737-4038 |pmid=18417486 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Willoughby |first=Pamela R. |date=2005 |title=Palaeoanthropology and the Evolutionary Place of Humans in Nature |url= http://escholarship.org/uc/item/92w669xb |journal=International Journal of Comparative Psychology |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=60–91 |doi=10.46867/IJCP.2005.18.01.02 |issn=0889-3667 |access-date=April 27, 2015 |archive-date=January 17, 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120117154844/http://escholarship.org/uc/item/92w669xb |url-status=live |doi-access=free}}</ref>{{sfn|Martin|2001|pp=12032–12038}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tavaré |first1=Simon |author1-link=Simon Tavaré |last2=Marshall |first2=Charles R. |last3=Will |first3=Oliver |last4=Soligo |first4=Christophe |last5=Martin |first5=Robert D. |author4-link=Robert D. Martin |display-authors=3 |date=April 18, 2002 |title=Using the fossil record to estimate the age of the last common ancestor of extant primates |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume=416 |issue=6882 |pages=726–729 |doi=10.1038/416726a |issn=0028-0836 |pmid=11961552 |bibcode=2002Natur.416..726T |s2cid=4368374}}</ref> One of the oldest known primate-like mammal species, the ''[[Plesiadapis]]'', came from North America;<ref>{{cite journal |last=Rose |first=Kenneth D. |date=1994 |title=The earliest primates |journal=Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews |volume=3 |issue=5 |pages=159–173 |doi=10.1002/evan.1360030505 |s2cid=85035753 |issn=1060-1538}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://alltheworldsprimates.org/John_Fleagle_Public.aspx |title=Primate Evolution |last1=Fleagle |first1=John |author1-link=John G. Fleagle |last2=Gilbert |first2=Chris |date=2011 |editor1-last=Rowe |editor1-first=Noel |editor2-last=Myers |editor2-first=Marc |website=All The World's Primates |publisher=Primate Conservation |location=Charlestown, Rhode Island |access-date=April 27, 2015 |archive-date=May 12, 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150512013618/http://www.alltheworldsprimates.org/john_fleagle_public.aspx |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Roach |first=John |date=March 3, 2008 |title=Oldest Primate Fossil in North America Discovered |url= http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/080303-american-primate.html |work=National Geographic News |location=Washington, DC |publisher=[[National Geographic Society]] |access-date=April 27, 2015 |archive-date=October 16, 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121016193314/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/080303-american-primate.html |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=McMains |first=Vanessa |date=December 5, 2011 |title=Found in Wyoming: New fossils of oldest American primate |url= http://gazette.jhu.edu/2011/12/05/found-in-wyoming-new-fossils-of-oldest-american-primate/ |newspaper=The Gazette |location=Baltimore |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University]] |access-date=April 27, 2015 |archive-date=January 16, 2019 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190116200750/https://gazette.jhu.edu/2011/12/05/found-in-wyoming-new-fossils-of-oldest-american-primate/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Caldwell |first=Sara B. |date=May 19, 2009 |title=Missing link found, early primate fossil 47 million years old |location=Toronto |work=Digital Journal |url= http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/272808 |access-date=April 27, 2015 |archive-date=July 22, 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150722061001/http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/272808 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Watts |first=Alex |date=May 20, 2009 |title=Scientists Unveil Missing Link In Evolution |url= http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/15284582 |access-date=April 27, 2015 |work=[[Sky News]] Online |location=London |publisher=[[Sky (United Kingdom)|BSkyB]] |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110728005247/http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/15284582 |archive-date=July 28, 2011}}</ref> another, ''[[Archicebus]]'', came from [[China]].<ref name="NYT-20130605">{{cite news |last=Wilford |first=J. N. |title=Palm-size fossil resets primates' clock, scientists say |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/06/science/palm-size-fossil-resets-primates-clock-scientists-say.html |archive-url= https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/06/science/palm-size-fossil-resets-primates-clock-scientists-say.html |archive-date=January 1, 2022 |url-access=limited |date=June 5, 2013 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=June 5, 2013}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Other similar basal primates were widespread in Eurasia and Africa during the tropical conditions of the Paleocene and [[Eocene]].

[[File:Notharctus tenebrosus AMNH.jpg|thumb|''[[Notharctus tenebrosus]]'', [[American Museum of Natural History]], New York]]

David R. Begun<ref name="Kordos-p17">{{cite journal |last1=Kordos |first1=László |last2=Begun |first2=David R. |date=January 2001 |title=Primates from Rudabánya: Allocation of specimens to individuals, sex and age categories |journal=Journal of Human Evolution |volume=40 |issue=1 |pages=17–39 |doi=10.1006/jhev.2000.0437 |issn=0047-2484 |pmid=11139358 |bibcode=2001JHumE..40...17K}}</ref> concluded that early primates flourished in Eurasia and that a lineage leading to the African apes and humans, including to ''[[Dryopithecus]]'', migrated south from Europe or Western Asia into Africa. The surviving tropical population of primates—which is seen most completely in the Upper Eocene and lowermost [[Oligocene]] fossil beds of the [[Faiyum]] depression southwest of [[Cairo]]—gave rise to all extant primate species, including the [[lemur]]s of [[Madagascar]], [[loris]]es of Southeast Asia, [[galago]]s or "bush babies" of Africa, and to the [[Simian|anthropoids]], which are the [[New World monkey|Platyrrhines]] or New World monkeys, the [[Catarrhines]] or Old World monkeys, and the great apes, including humans and other hominids.

The earliest known catarrhine is ''[[Kamoyapithecus]]'' from the uppermost Oligocene at Eragaleit in the northern [[Great Rift Valley, Kenya|Great Rift Valley]] in Kenya, dated to 24&nbsp;million years ago.{{sfn|Cameron|2004|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=fnqzb4_UVfkC&pg=PA76 76]}} Its ancestry is thought to be species related to ''[[Aegyptopithecus]]'', ''[[Propliopithecus]]'', and ''[[Parapithecus]]'' from the Faiyum, at around 35&nbsp;mya.{{sfn|Wallace|2004|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=YoyQQEOKGVQC&pg=PA240 240]}} In 2010, ''[[Saadanius]]'' was described as a close relative of the last common ancestor of the [[Crown group|crown]] catarrhines, and tentatively dated to 29–28&nbsp;mya, helping to fill an 11-million-year gap in the fossil record.<ref name="2010Zalmout">{{cite journal |last1=Zalmout |first1=Iyad S. |last2=Sanders |first2=William J. |author2-link=William J. Sanders |last3=MacLatchy |first3=Laura M. |last4=Gunnell |first4=Gregg F. |last5=Al-Mufarreh |first5=Yahya A. |last6=Ali |first6=Mohammad A. |last7=Nasser |first7=Abdul-Azziz H. |last8=Al-Masari |first8=Abdu M. |last9=Al-Sobhi |first9=Salih A. |last10=Nadhra |first10=Ayman O. |last11=Matari |first11=Adel H. |last12=Wilson |first12=Jeffrey A. |last13=Gingerich |first13=Philip D. |date=July 15, 2010 |title=New Oligocene primate from Saudi Arabia and the divergence of apes and Old World monkeys |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume=466 |issue=7304 |pages=360–364 |bibcode=2010Natur.466..360Z |doi=10.1038/nature09094 |issn=0028-0836 |pmid=20631798 |s2cid=205220837 |display-authors=3}}</ref>

[[File:Proconsul skeleton reconstitution (University of Zurich).JPG|thumb|Reconstructed tailless ''[[Proconsul (mammal)|Proconsul]]'' skeleton]]

In the [[Early Miocene]], about 22&nbsp;million years ago, the many kinds of [[Arboreal locomotion|arboreally]]-adapted (tree-dwelling) primitive catarrhines from East Africa suggest a long history of prior diversification. [[Fossil|Fossils]] at 20&nbsp;million years ago include fragments attributed to ''[[Victoriapithecus]]'', the earliest Old World monkey. Among the genera thought to be in the [[ape]] lineage leading up to 13&nbsp;million years ago are ''[[Proconsul (mammal)|Proconsul]]'', ''[[Rangwapithecus]]'', ''[[Dendropithecus]]'', ''[[Limnopithecus]]'', ''[[Nacholapithecus]]'', ''[[Equatorius]]'', ''[[Nyanzapithecus pickfordi|Nyanzapithecus]]'', ''[[Afropithecus]]'', ''Heliopithecus'', and ''[[Kenyapithecus]]'', all from East Africa.

The presence of other generalized non-cercopithecids of [[Middle Miocene]] from sites far distant, such as ''[[Otavipithecus]]'' from cave deposits in Namibia, and ''[[Pierolapithecus]]'' and ''[[Dryopithecus]]'' from France, Spain and Austria, is evidence of a wide diversity of forms across Africa and the Mediterranean basin during the relatively warm and equable climatic regimes of the Early and Middle Miocene. The youngest of the [[Miocene]] hominoids, ''[[Oreopithecus]]'', is from coal beds in Italy that have been dated to 9&nbsp;million years ago.

Molecular evidence indicates that the lineage of gibbons diverged from the line of great apes some 18–12&nbsp;mya, and that of orangutans (subfamily [[Ponginae]]){{efn|Not to be confused with [[Pongidae]], an obsolete family which grouped together [[orangutan]]s, [[gorilla]]s and [[chimpanzee]]s to separate them from humans}} diverged from the other great apes at about 12&nbsp;million years; there are no fossils that clearly document the ancestry of gibbons, which may have originated in a so-far-unknown Southeast Asian hominoid population, but fossil proto-orangutans may be represented by ''[[Sivapithecus]]'' from India and ''[[Griphopithecus]]'' from Turkey, dated to around 10&nbsp;mya.{{sfn|Srivastava|2009|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=kCerOsM8XMwC&pg=PA87 87]}}

Hominidae subfamily [[Homininae]] (African hominids) diverged from Ponginae (orangutans) about 14&nbsp;mya. Hominins (including humans and the Australopithecine and [[Panina]] subtribes) parted from the [[Gorillini]] tribe (gorillas) between 8 and 9&nbsp;mya; Australopithecine (including the extinct biped ancestors of humans) separated from the ''Pan'' genus (containing chimpanzees and bonobos) 4–7&nbsp;mya.<ref name=":4" /> The ''Homo'' genus is evidenced by the appearance of ''H.&nbsp;habilis'' over 2&nbsp;mya,{{efn|name=habilis}} while anatomically modern humans emerged in Africa approximately 300,000 years ago.