What are Hominids?
Hominids are the biological family of which humans are a member. Informally, they are known as the Great Apes, and include four genera: humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans. Hominids can be broken down into two subfamilies, Ponginae, which includes orangutans (Pongo) and Hominae, which includes gorillas (Gorilla), chimps (Pan), and humans and their extinct close relatives such as Neanderthals (Homo). The definition of “hominid” has changed several times in the past: at one point it referred only to humans and our extinct close relatives, and this old definition sometimes persists to today. “Hominid” means “human-like”. Hominids, especially humans, can be considered the most intelligent biological family on the planet. The products of human intelligence are ubiquitous and quite startling — the computer you’re using to read this, for instance — while signs of intelligence in other animals is more subtle. At least one gorilla, Koko, has been taught to use a rudimentary form of si
