Transdimensional Mistake: HominiNs, not HominiDs

[Tor]

Page 16 includes the "Hominid" (strangely called "Hominidon" in the title, which isn't repeated... not sure why, never heard this being used)

This is said to include:
*Australopithecus
*Robustus
*Erectus

It is specified not to include:
*Homo Sapiens
*Neanderthals
*Cro-Magnon Man

We should also note that the main TMNT book has an "Ape" category (ape is a term analagous with the term "hominoid" btw) though clarified to actually mean the Great Apes, and includes:
*Chimpanzee
*Gorilla
*Orangutang

It presumably excludes the human and "hominid" (Aust/Robust/Erect) species, in spite of these also being apes.

Based on what the TransTMNT category includes and excludes, "Hominid" is not actually the ideal term for this. Here is why:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hominid is merely a sub-family of hominoid and actually means "great ape" as distinguished from lesser apes (like Gibbons). They are all apes, but includes the subfamily of "Ponginae" which orangutangs are a part of.

A more ideal term for this would be "hominin" (referring to Hominini tribe). That's because, using the 3 examples of what you can be under the category, here is how it moves:

Genus: Australopithecus
Subtribe: Australopithecina
Tribe: Hominini
Subfamily: Homininae
Family: Hominidae
Superfamily: Hominoidea

The "robustus" is also part of the Australopithecina subtribe, but is a species of the "Paranthropus" genus instead.

Erectus on the other hand, is a species that's part of the Homo genus, part of the Hominini tribe as well. So basically this tribal level is the earliest commonality that I could find.

Even though it's not mentioned in the "Hominidon" sections of TransTMNT, pg 74 also mentions the "Boisei" on the Cycle C table. Like the robustus, this is also a species in the Paranthropus genus, and could also be classed in the Hominin grouping.

Knowing the commonality of the exampels though, wording can be constructed to modify it based on what Palladium excludes. The book says they are a subspecies of homo sapiens (taking the Homo sapiens neanderthalensis viewpoint) although there's also the "Homo neanderthalensis" viewpoint where it's a separate species of the homo genus rather than a subspecies of homo sapiens.

Probably the simplest and most inclusive way of describing the "Hominidon" class on pg 16 would probably be "non-homo hominins" except that erectus are homos... so maybe "non-sapiens hominins" ? Shortening homo sapiens to just sapiens seems okay, dunno.

As for the "Apes" (or "great apes") classification on pg 29 of main TMNT, I think out of recognition that all hominins (homo and otherwise) are also hominoids (apes) a more specific description could be substituted for the grouping of chimps/gorillas/orangutans.

All three actually have more in common than merely being apes (hominoids) since they are great apes (hominids) so unless we want the category to include Gibbons (that probably wouldn't be horrible unless they have separate stats already) we could add the 'great' (or drop the 2nd 'o') and substitute the 'hominid' classification from TransTMNT since it doesn't need the D anymore since it's got a 2nd N.

I'm thinking they could just be called "non-hominin hominids" (great only) or "non-hominin hominoids" (including lesser, like Gibbons).

Make sure that it's "hominin" that's excluded and not "hominine" though, as our closer relatives, the chimps, in the sister tribe Panini (to our Hominini or "hominin" tribe) is part of the "Homininae" subfamily of Hominids which are called hominines.