

Evolution to the Human Skull



Chart compiled by Daniel White / Skytopia (user twinbee at Reddit.com)

Cranium images sourced from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.



Timestamp: 2014-07-12. This collection of skulls (well, craniums) shows the variety of the human family tree, yet the generel trend from Australopithecus afarensis (4 million years old) to Homo sapiens is evident. After a long search on the web, I couldn't find anything which contained every human / hominin skull (found so far) in one graphic, so I compiled my own, and below is the result.



The information and pictures were sourced at the 3D section from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. I have kept most of the fossils, just omitting artifacts, and a few quarter or half-complete craniums. All skulls are shown side-on (yaw: -90, pitch: 0).



I originally posted this image to the evolution subreddit and it was pretty well received, making 5th in the all-time top links submitted. Since then, I have updated it slightly to version 1.1, completing the missing cranium in the original picture.



Other resolutions: 1920x1200. 3840x2400.







Other resolutions: 1920x1200. 3840x2400.



Links:



Onezoom.org - a giant tree of life. Zoom in as far as you like, and see if you can find the human branch!

Evogeneao.com - Check out Leonard's tree of life (see full size by clicking the + button in the corner of the image).



