The hominids are the members of the biological family Hominidae (the great apes), which includes humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans.

The exact criteria for membership in the Homininae are not clear, but the subfamily generally includes those species which share more than 97% of their DNA with the modern human genome, and exhibit a capacity for language or for simple cultures beyond the family or band.

The theory of mind including such faculties as mental state attribution, empathy and even empathetic deception is a controversial criterion distinguishing the adult human alone among the hominids.

Humans acquire this capacity at about four and a half years of age, whereas it has neither been proven nor disproven that gorillas and chimpanzees develop a theory of mind.

This is also the case for some new world monkeys outside the family of great apes, as, for example, the capuchin monkeys..

For more information about the topic Hominidae, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:

Homo (genus) — Homo is the genus that includes modern humans and their close relatives. The genus is estimated to be between 1.5 and 2.5 million years old. All ...  > read more

Orangutan — Orangutans (also spelled orang utan, orang-utan, sometimes incorrectly orangutang) are two species of great apes with long arms and reddish, ...  > read more

Primate — A primate is any member of the biological order Primates, the group that contains all the species commonly related to the lemurs, monkeys, and apes, ...  > read more

Monkey — A monkey is any member of two of the three groupings of simian primates. These two groupings are the New World and Old World monkeys of which ...  > read more

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