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Two chimpanzees sitting together

Great apes

Great apes including humans are all in the same primate family, called the Hominidae, and are the largest of the primates. In all species the male is bigger than the female. The great apes include gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans.

Scientific name: Hominidae

Rank: Family

Common names:

Hominids

Great ape size range

An illustration comparing the size of other great apes with humans, from largest to smallest: human (tallest), eastern gorilla

A comparison of great ape size, including humans - from the 180cm tall human, to the 130cm tall Australopithecus.

When they lived

Discover the other animals and plants that lived during the following geological time periods.

About

The Hominidae (pron.: /hɒˈmɪnɨdiː/; also known as great apes[notes 1]) form a taxonomic family of primates, including four extant genera:

  • chimpanzees and bonobos (Pan);[notes 2]
  • gorillas (Gorilla);
  • humans (Homo); and
  • orangutans (Pongo).

The term "hominid" is also used in the more restricted sense as hominins or "humans and relatives of humans closer than chimpanzees". In this usage, all hominid species other than Homo sapiens are extinct. A number of known extinct genera are grouped with humans in the Homininae subfamily, others with orangutans in the Ponginae subfamily. The most recent common ancestor of the Hominidae lived roughly 14 million years ago, when the ancestors of the orangutans speciated from the ancestors of the other three genera. The ancestors of the Hominidae family had already speciated from those of the Hylobatidae family, perhaps 15 million to 20 million years ago.

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