The Hominid Family Tree

Around 6 to 7 million years ago, a lineage split somewhere in the forests of Africa. One branch would eventually become chimpanzees. The other, through millions of years of adaptation, dead ends, and unlikely survival, would become us.

"Becoming human" was not a straight line. It was a bush, not a ladder. At various points in prehistory, multiple species of human-like creatures walked the Earth simultaneously. Some interbred. Most went extinct. Only one made it through.

For most of human evolutionary history, we shared the planet with other human species. That fact alone should feel strange.