Human Taxonomy

Human taxonomy is the classification of the species Homo sapiens (Latin: "wise man"), or modern human. Homo is the human genus, which also includes Neanderthals and many other extinct species of hominid; H. sapiens is the only surviving species of the genus Homo. Extinct Homo species are known as archaic humans. Modern humans are the subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens, differentiated from a direct ancestor, Homo sapiens idaltu.

Prior to the current scientific classification of humans, philosophers and scientists have made various attempts to classify humans. They offered various definitions of the human being and various schemes for classifying types of humans. Biologists once classified races as subspecies, but today scientists question even the concept of race itself. Certain issues in human taxonomy remain topics of debate today.