What Makes Us Human: Questioning The Definition of Homo Sapiens
A brand new paper is bringing into question the way paleontologists and anthropologists define members of our genus. This may not change what we are, Homo sapiens, but it may affect how we define our hominin ancestors like Paranthropus and Australopithecus in the future!
Trevor Schulz
8/20/20261 min read
Publication Info:
Transcript:
Ian Towle, Clades, grades, and the genus problem: A case for revising hominin taxonomy, American Journal of Biological Anthropology (2026). DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.70344
A brand new paper is bringing into question the way paleontologists and anthropologists define members of our genus. This may not change what we are, H. sapiens, but it may affect how we define our hominin ancestors like Paranthropus and Australopithecus in the future!
Episode 330
Notes:
What is it that makes us human? Or more specifically, part of the genus Homo? Cuz that's kind of all being brought into question. Like, I'm sure you know our species binomial name is Homo sapiens, sapiens being our species, Homo being our genus, but the lines of what exactly makes a species or genus is becoming a little messier all the time. It's important to remember that nature doesn't care at all about how we categorize things, including ourselves. And according to some new research, it might be time to change that. Cuz modern taxonomy is based a lot more on an animal's evolution than it was in the past. In the past, it mostly being based on superficial characteristics. And to be clear, I'm not necessarily saying that's the wrong way to do it. A lot of the time, especially in paleontology, you don't have the genetic evidence to use. But a lot of the defining features of Homo sapiens, like the larger brain and tool usage, don't really apply because we know that there are species within the Homo genus with smaller brains. We know that tool usage isn't even just a primate thing. And there's a new paper suggesting that the Homo genus, or at least a clade, should stretch all the way back to animals like Paranthropus and Australopithecus, going back something like 5 million years. But this paper makes it very clear that that specifically may not be the best route. But it does bring up an interesting point that at least the way we classify our own genus should probably be revisited. As usual, if you want more information, here's the source.