Hominid

High school (ages 12+)
Human Body

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/hominid

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the scientific classification?Tribe Hominini, within the family Hominidae
2. What is the estimated divergence time?Approximately 6-7 million years ago from the lineage leading to chimpanzees
3. When did humans split from chimpanzees?The line that leads to humans and the line that leads to chimpanzees split apart about 6 to 7 million years ago.
4. Why did early hominids start walking on two legs?Walking upright helped them move farther, stay cooler in open areas, see better for food and danger, and freed their hands to carry things and make tools.

Hominin: A member of the human lineage after the split from the last common ancestor with chimpanzees, characterized by bipedalism.
Encephalization: The evolutionary increase in the size of the brain relative to body size.
Paleoanthropology: The study of the fossil evidence of human evolution.