Humans Are Mammals - The Australian Museum

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Australopitheus africanus Click to enlarge image
Toggle Caption Australopitheus africanus skull from the Human Evolution Gallery (tracks through time) Location: Sterkfontein, South Africa Image: Carl Bento © Australian Museum

Mammal diversity

The first mammals evolved about 190 million years ago. These early mammals were small, insect-eating creatures that lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. When the dinosaurs disappeared about 65 million years ago, mammals began to diversify into many forms. There are now about 4500 different species of mammals living in almost every environment on earth including the oceans, fresh water, on and below the ground, in the treetops and even in the sky.

Mammal features

All mammals (including humans) have the same distinctive features. These include:

  • fur or hair growing from the skin
  • mammary glands that, in females, produce milk for feeding the young
  • three bones (the malleus, incus and stapes) in the middle ear for transmitting sound to the inner ear
  • a single bone (the dentary) on each side of the lower jaw

Our place in the animal kingdom

Humans possess many unique characteristics but we also share a number of similarities with other animals.These similarities and differences are revealed through our genetic make-up, the ways our bodies are constructed and our behaviour. They help us to understand our place in the animal kingdom by allowing us to work out the evolutionary relationships between ourselves and other animals. Studies of our closest living relatives, the apes, also provide valuable clues about our early ancestors’ bodies and lifestyles.

Humans are classified as mammals because humans have the same distinctive features (listed above) found in all members of this large group.

Humans are also classified within:

  • the subgroup of mammals called primates;
  • and the subgroup of primates called apes and in particular the 'Great Apes'

Humans, however, also possess many unique characteristics and are therefore classified within a unique subgroup of the Great Apes called the hominins.

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Also in this section

  • Charles Darwin's first diagram of an evolutionary tree Evolution Statement
  • Homo Habilis How do we know what they ate?
  • Australopithecus sediba skull Australopithecus sediba
  • 'Cro-magnon man' skull How do we know how they behaved?
  • Liujiang Skull Homo sapiens angled view The first modern humans in Southeast Asia
  • Xiahe mandible from Tibet The Denisovans
  • Sahelanthropus tchadensis, Toumai skull Sahelanthropus tchadensis
  • Homo naledi type specimen Homo naledi
  • Gibraltar skull The historical and social framework
  • Homo sapien skull cast Homo sapiens – modern humans
  • This a cast of a male gorilla, Gorilla gorilla, skull. Humans and other Great Apes
  • Earth photographed from space. The first migrations out of Africa

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Homo Habilis

How do we know what they ate?

The foods eaten by our ancestors can tell us a lot about their lifestyles and the environments in which they lived. Food has also played a major role in human evolution, particularly when meat became a significant part of the human diet about two million years ago.

Discover more Earth photographed from space.

The first migrations out of Africa

About 2 million years ago, the first of our ancestors moved northwards from their homelands and out of Africa.

Discover more Tool cast spear point

Some interesting connections

The trends and changes that made us human did not develop in isolation. There are some interesting connections between the four major trends.

Discover more Cast and recontruction of Homo rudolfensis.

How do we know what they looked like?

Seeing our ancestors’ fleshed-out faces and bodies helps us to imagine them as living beings. Instead of staring at fragments of bone, we can gaze into a face from the past. Reconstructions that show flesh on bone begin with a detailed knowledge of primate anatomy.

Discover more Liujiang Skull Homo sapiens angled view

The first modern humans in Southeast Asia

Archaeological evidence shows that modern humans had reached Southeast Asia by 70,000 years ago, however the oldest securely dated modern human remains are only about 40,000 years old.

Discover more Homo sapien skull cast

Homo sapiens – modern humans

All people living today belong to the species Homo sapiens. We evolved only relatively recently but with complex culture and technology have been able to spread throughout the world and occupy a range of different environments.

Discover more Paranthropus boisei skull

Sharing a common ancestor

Humans did not evolve from an ape - we are apes, and our closest living relatives include chimpanzees and gorillas.

Discover more ‘Lucy’ Australopithecus afarensis skull

Australopithecus afarensis

This species is one of the best known of our ancestors.

Discover more Front view of Homo floresiensis skull

Homo floresiensis

One of the most controversial and surprising hominin finds in a century.

Discover more Reconstructed Neanderthal man

What will we look like in the future?

Predicting what we will be like in the future has been the domain of science fiction writes for centuries

Discover more Partial femur (BAR1002) of Orrorin tugenensis

Orrorin tugenensis

A key specimen of the human story, its position on our family tree is highly debated. Is it the oldest known hominin or should it be placed on the tree before the human line split from the line leading to chimpanzees?

Discover more <i>A. anamensis</i> fossil skull, dubbed MRD, uncovered in 2016 at the Woranso-Mille site in the Afar region of Ethiopia

Australopithecus anamensis

A. anamensis is the earliest known australopithecine and lived over 4 million years ago.

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