all Hominidae lived roughly 14 million years ago, when the ancestors of the orangutans speciated from the ancestral line of the other three genera. Those ancestors of the family Hominidae had already speciated from the family Hylobatidae (the gibbons), perhaps 15 to 20 million years ago.

Due to the close genetic relationship between humans and the other great apes, certain animal rights organizations, such as the Great Ape Project,