Remnants of Human Evolution?

Question

All family trees show the descendents of an ancestor. The theory of common descent is that all life originated from single cellular organisms. Now, gradually during our evolution our quadruped ancestors became bipeds. Are we humans their only descendents or do non-human biped hominids exist, either today or in the fossil record?

My theory is that the first biped hominids had many descendents, whom we obviously share a common ancestry. Some were unable to adapt to their habitat, others returned to quadrupedalism and a small group did adapt and formed us humans today.

SIDENOTE: This transition was just a small part of our evolution and we can see that several hominid species account for this. But how about our magnitude of touch sensors and face muscles. There must be several transitional species for the evolution of each of these traits. We are familiar with the descent of man pictures, but in reality there must have been thousands of species involved in our evolution. Thoughts?

Sorry I meant opinion, not theory.

Q: Are all hominids humans?
A: No, hominids include chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans.

Q: Is this question about the origin of life?
A: No, its about an aspect of human evolution.

Q: Is this question debating whether evolution is a fact or theory?
A; No.

Answer 1

>"My theory is that the first biped hominids had many descendents, whom we obviously share a common ancestry. Some were unable to adapt to their habitat, others returned to quadrupedalism and a small group did adapt and formed us humans today."

That is pretty much the accepted theory of human evolution ... except for the part about some hominids returning to quadrupedalism.

But yes, there have been many biped hominid species probably including most if not all of the genus Australopithecus, and definitely the genus Homo (Homo neanderthalensis, Homo floresiensis, Homo erectus, etc.) but of these, only one still exists, Homo sapiens.

Answer 2

First off, you do not have a theory, you have an opinion.

This phase "non-human biped hominids" is a contradiction, all humans are Hominids.

Science has a good collection of human ancestors in the fossil record. No, there were not many more species of Hominids. It looks doubtful that other "human" fossils will be found.

Evolution is both fact and theory. It is also the only explanation of how life has evolved on Earth. None of the other attempts, to explain how life evolved, ever come close to a good sound scientific explanation.

Answer 3

Some suggest that humans killed off competing bipeds. Such as the Neanderthals who were still living in Europe as recently as 20-40,000 years ago ( a blink of the eye in evolutionary terms). Nowadays, I think humans closest living relative is the bonobo. They are very interesting and share a lot of features with humans that chimpanzees do not. Such as longer legs, less upper body strength, vastly different social organization, etc. I think if you look into bonobos, you will find a lot of other things you are looking for too. Like facial expressions and touch sensors. But, still lacking the proper vocal chords for speech.