← Trends in human evolution
3 Primate & hominin features
Watch: Primate & hominin features Opens a YouTube search: pick a video that clicks for youPrimate characteristics
- Grasping hands and feet with an opposable thumb; nails instead of claws.
- Forward-facing eyes → overlapping fields → stereoscopic (3-D) vision and depth perception.
- Flexible, rotating limbs and shoulder joints.
- Large, complex brain relative to body size; long parental care.
Hominins
Hominins are the group including modern humans and our bipedal ancestors (after the split from chimps). The defining early hominin trait is habitual bipedalism.A fast check when identifying a hominin feature
- Have I named the SPECIFIC feature (e.g. "opposable thumb"), not just "primate-like hands"?
- Have I linked the feature to a functional advantage, not just described it?