Homo sapiens
“Homo sapien” means “the wise human”.
Homo sapiens are species of all the primates on the earth that are highly developed and well evolved, and humans belong to this category. The primates in this category are lemurs, lorises, apes, monkeys, to name a few. Humans fall into the domain Eukarya. Such entities have DNA as their genetic material, held in the form of chromosomes seen in the nucleus in the cells of eukaryotic living things. Homo sapiens can be seen in this domain in the Kingdom Animalia under the Phylum Chordata, and further under the class Mammalia, categorised under the order Primates.
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Homo sapiens sapiens
Homo sapiens sapiens are the subspecies coming from Homo sapiens; they comprise modern humans only. The scientific name of humans is Homo sapiens sapiens. Homo sapiens sapiens is the definition of modern Homo sapiens. This subspecies is said to have been distinguished about 160,000 years ago who apparently moved to different continents, based on archaeological research and findings.
Key Differences between Homo sapiens and Homo sapiens sapiens
The table below depicts the differences between Homo sapiens and Homo sapiens sapiens.
Homo sapiens | Homo sapiens sapiens |
What are they? | |
Species of primates that are well-developed | It is a subspecies of Homo sapiens comprising modern Humans. |
When were they distinguished? | |
Said to have evolved from early European modern humans approximately 300,000 years ago | The subspecies is said to have been distinguished about 160,000 years ago |
Taxonomic rank | |
Species | Subspecies |
Size of brain | |
Size of brains somewhat differ in different species of Homo sapiens | Their brains constitute close to 2.2% of their body weight, thus making it one of the largest brains to body ratios of all the Homo sapiens |
Diet and digestive system | |
The oldest human would eat mainly herbs and plants, which obviously because of its built-up, took longer to digest; it required a longer digestive tract | Have a diet of meat and plants. Evolved and began to have a diet comprising more meat and cooking food with the discovery of fire. Hence, the body developed a shorter alimentary canal to process food in a shorter duration, easily |