Human origins quiz: How well do you know the story of humanity?

Some hominin species, like Australopithecus afarensis (shown here), survived for around a million years. (Image credit: David Coleman | Have Camera Will Travel via Alamy)

Our species, Homo sapiens, has been evolving for more than 300,000 years, but the story of human origins starts much earlier. Since evolving from the common ancestor that we share with our closest living relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, there have been many different species along the human lineage — known as hominins.

Scientists who study human origins and evolution, called paleoanthropologists, sometimes find new hominin fossils that give us a glimpse into our evolutionary history. And advances in the analysis of ancient proteins are helping to identify which species a fossil belongs to, and whether they were male or female. We now know there were large periods of time when multiple hominin species shared the landscape, and that sometimes they mated.

More science quizzes

Human evolution quiz: What do you know about Homo sapiens?
Neanderthal quiz: How much do you know about our closest relatives?
Primates quiz: Go ape and test your knowledge on our closest relatives

Sophie is a U.K.-based staff writer at Live Science. She covers a wide range of topics, having previously reported on research spanning from bonobo communication to the first water in the universe. Her work has also appeared in outlets including New Scientist, The Observer and BBC Wildlife, and she was shortlisted for the Association of British Science Writers' 2025 "Newcomer of the Year" award for her freelance work at New Scientist. Before becoming a science journalist, she completed a doctorate in evolutionary anthropology from the University of Oxford, where she spent four years looking at why some chimps are better at using tools than others.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.