monominin

Monominin is a term occasionally used in discussions of human evolution to describe a hypothetical single hominin lineage that persists through time with little or no durable branching. In this model, modern humans would be descended from one continuous lineage, while other contemporaneous hominin lineages would either go extinct without leaving descendants or contribute only transient gene flow. The word is not a standard category in formal paleoanthropology; it is chiefly used in theoretical, pedagogical, or speculative contexts to explore how phylogenetic inferences would look under a simplified scenario.

Etymology: The term blends the prefix mono- meaning “one” with hominin, indicating a single-lineage concept.

Concepts and implications: Proponents use monominin as a thought experiment to test phylogenetic methods, assess the identifiability of lineages from fossil and genetic data, or illustrate how incomplete sampling can produce apparent diversity. In a monominin view, most apparent species diversity among hominins would reflect turnover, dating uncertainties, fossil gaps, and admixture with other populations rather than persistent branching within a single lineage.

Criticism: The approach is controversial because the actual fossil and genomic record shows extensive branching and reticulation among hominin populations. Critics argue that a monolineage model risks underestimating the complexity of speciation, migration, and admixture events that shaped human evolution.

See also: Hominin, Phylogeny, Speciation, Reticulate evolution.