Yet Also So Different - Tumblr Posts

Can we get some cursed facts about this really strange primate colloquially called "Humans" please? I simply cannot remember how to spell the scientific name, and I don't want to embarrass myself in front of you

well I'm AFRAAIIIID that you're going to have to be more specific, because "human" is actually a pretty big group, phylogenetically speaking!

specifically, it's every primate in the genus Homo.

<art src: John Fleagle>

this means that "human" isn't just the term for the only extant species from this group, H. Sapiens, "human" is also the proper term for all of the extinct members!

H. Neanderthalensis was a human. So was H. Erectus.

H. Habilis, H. Floresiensis, and H. Denisova were all humans.

which makes perfect sense, actually, because Homo is just the Latin word for "human" in the first place! fancy fancy.

but as anyone who's ever had to sit through a 300-level STEM class knows, Homo has another definition, this time from Greek, meaning "same".

homodont. homophone. homologous. homogenized.

but doesn't that also make perfect sense? bones aside, if all of the extinct species of human were resurrected right now and you ran into, say, a Denisovan and a Neanderthal on the street, wouldn't you recognize them?

"You are like me. We are the same."

"We are the same."

<art src (all): Alfons & Adrie Kennis>