The African great apes and humans had a common ancestor some time in the past, and the common ancestor of the African and Asian apes is even more remote.

Collectively the apes and humans comprise the Super-family Hominoidea ("hominoids"), order Primates. Humans and their ancestors comprise the Family Hominidae("hominids").1

74The family tree shown here is an hypothesis about the evolution of the hominoids.

This phylogenetic tree proposes a particular ranking of the living apes with respect to their closeness to us. It also proposes atimescale for hominoid evolution. The tree also expressesuncertainty about some aspects of our relationship with the chimpanzees.

Even at this very generalised level, there will be disagreements aboutdetail.

These differences often become expressed as alternative classifications.