In this bachelorʼs thesis there are twelve major hominin species described, which evolved over time. These species are Ardipithecus ramidus, Australopithecus anamensis, Australopithecus afarensis, Australopithecus africanus, Australopithecus aethiopicus, Homo habilis,
Australopithecus sediba, Homo erectus, Australopithecus robustus, Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, Homo sapiens denisova, and Homo sapiens sapiens (or anatomically modern
humans). This process started in the Pliocene Epoch (5 – 7 Mio years ago), when the evolutionary lines split into two directions – one developed towards chimpanzees and the other
towards hominins. This thesis describes the skeletons and fossil finds of all twelve species. At the end of each species’ skeletal descriptions, their characteristics are also compared with other species, with some being more similar than the others. There are also some pieces of
information and descriptions of the main sites, where each species was found. Some hominin species were found at several different locations on the same continent, some of them even on different continents. Yet not all excavation sites gave us very good fossil or other finds, which
would contribute to the descriptions of a hominin species in question and to understanding of their everyday life. In this thesis some of the most important works of paleontologists, paleoanthropologists, archaeologists, and other scientists are also presented, which helped us to
understand more about our past, as well as about the human evolution, as we know it today.
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