Changes

Cave man may be colloquial, but it is not used in any kind of serious discussion among academics concerned with studying pre-historic humans. Cave man is a very loose term that is often used for inaccurate descriptions.  I just don't consider it very professional or encyclopedic.[[User:Prof0705|Prof0705]] 13:48, 15 May 2007 (EDT)

Cave man may be colloquial, but it is not used in any kind of serious discussion among academics concerned with studying pre-historic humans. Cave man is a very loose term that is often used for inaccurate descriptions.  I just don't consider it very professional or encyclopedic.[[User:Prof0705|Prof0705]] 13:48, 15 May 2007 (EDT)

:I agree, if someone is going to the trouble to use the term "Hominid" then they have more than a passing understanding of evolution, and they're using the term for a specific purpose.  I also think that in the first definition that we should strike the section that says that it's colloquially used to refer to modern humans.  Although modern humans are hominids, typically people use hominid to refer to the evolutionary ancestors of man, also called the "hominina" tribe.  This is one of the reasons I still prefer the original edit I made to this article:  '''The taxonomic term '''hominid''' is used by modern biologists to refer to humans, as well as the "great apes," including gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans, and their ancestors up to several millions of years ago.  It is also colloquially used to refer to species ancestral to modern humans, including Australopithecus, Paranthropus, Ardipithecus, and Homo though the correct term for this group is '''hominina'''.'''  I think this was more accurate and succinct.

:I agree, if someone is going to the trouble to use the term "Hominid" then they have more than a passing understanding of evolution, and they're using the term for a specific purpose.  I also think that in the first definition that we should strike the section that says that it's colloquially used to refer to modern humans.  Although modern humans are hominids, typically people use hominid to refer to the evolutionary ancestors of man, also called the "hominina" tribe.  This is one of the reasons I still prefer the original edit I made to this article:  '''The taxonomic term hominid is used by modern biologists to refer to humans, as well as the "great apes," including gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans, and their ancestors up to several millions of years ago.  It is also colloquially used to refer to species ancestral to modern humans, including Australopithecus, Paranthropus, Ardipithecus, and Homo though the correct term for this group is hominina.'''  I think this was more accurate and succinct. The fact is that there aren't truly two definitions of the term.  There is the formal definition, and the way that definition is used informally.  [[User:JohnSmith|JohnSmith]] 14:13, 17 May 2007 (EDT)