Homo

''Genus Homo'' (novel)}}}}

| image = Members of Genus Homo.png | image_caption = Notable members of ''Homo''.
Clockwise from top left: A reconstructed Neanderthal (''Homo neanderthalensis'') skeleton, a modern human (''Homo sapiens'') female with a child in India, a reconstructed ''Homo habilis'' skull, and a replica skull of Peking Man (subspecies of ''Homo erectus''). | taxon = Homo | authority = Linnaeus, 1758 | type_species = ''Homo sapiens'' | type_species_authority = Linnaeus, 1758 | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision = *''Homo sapiens'' * ''Homo antecessor'' * ''Homo cepranensis'' * ''Homo erectus'' * ''Homo ergaster'' * ''Homo floresiensis'' * ''Homo georgicus'' * ''Homo habilis'' * ''Homo heidelbergensis'' * ''Homo juluensis'' * ''Denisovans / Homo longi'' * ''Homo luzonensis'' * ''Homo naledi'' * ''Homo neanderthalensis'' * ''Homo rhodesiensis'' * ''Homo rudolfensis''

''For other species or subspecies suggested, see below.'' | synonyms = }}

''Homo'' () is a genus of great ape (family Hominidae) that emerged from the early homininian genus ''Australopithecus'', encompassing a single extant species, ''Homo sapiens'' (modern humans), along with a number of extinct species (e.g. ''Homo erectus'' and ''Homo neanderthalensis'') classified as either ancestral or closely related to modern humans, collectively called archaic humans. ''Homo'', together with the genus ''Paranthropus'', is probably most closely related to the species ''Australopithecus africanus'' within ''Australopithecus''.'''' The closest living relatives of ''Homo'' are of the hominin genus ''Pan'' (chimpanzees and bonobos), with the ancestors of ''Pan'' and ''Homo'' estimated to have diverged around 5.7–11 million years ago during the Late Miocene.

The oldest member of the genus is ''Homo habilis'', with fossil records of just over 2 million years ago. Suggestions for pushing back the age to 2.8 Mya were made in 2015 based on the discovery of a jawbone.|name=fn1}} ''H. erectus'' appeared about 2 million years ago and spread throughout Africa (debatably as another species called ''Homo ergaster'') and Eurasia in several migrations. The species was adaptive and successful, and persisted for more than a million years before gradually diverging into new species around 500,000 years ago..}}

Anatomically modern humans (early ''H. sapiens'') emerged close to 300,000 to 200,000 years ago in Africa, and ''H. neanderthalensis'' emerged around the same time in Europe and Western Asia. ''H. sapiens'' dispersed from Africa in several waves, from possibly as early as 250,000 years ago, and certainly by 130,000 years ago, with the so-called Southern Dispersal, beginning about 70,000–50,000 years ago, leading to the lasting colonisation of Eurasia and Oceania by 50,000 years ago. ''H. sapiens'' met and interbred with archaic humans in Africa and in Eurasia. Separate archaic (non-''sapiens'') human species including Neanderthals are thought to have survived until around 40,000 years ago. Provided by Wikipedia