The term hominin refers to the member of the ape family that are habitually bipedal. The transition occurred during the of environmental transition during the time some ape species extinct. Some hominin traits that can inform us about modern human biology are primitive traits about erect postures and brain/ skull sizes. Also the location in which the environment they lived in.  The saheloanthropus was located in chad, north central Africa and had primitive traits of a small brain. The derived (hominid like) traits were the small teeth, large brow ridges and the flat face. The orrorin traits consisted of bipedal legs and long ape like arms. They lived in dry evergreen forest environment. The “ardi” in which its fossils consisted of relatively large canines, small brains, and big feet. The derived human like features were the foramen magnum under skull, and the teeth shaped like later found hominins. The older species in the time 5-5 mya had larger ape like canines, and the later species 4-4 mya had smaller canines.

Primative traits including small ape size brains, large faces small bodies and long arms big canines and different configurations of the teeth are all things that inform us about modern human biology. We all as human derived and evolved over time from these traits, From body postures, height to weight and even face features. It tells us who where our potential ancestors, what tribe and location we were from. It all connects to a family tree, and shows us a specific detail or trait that still might run in your family after all these years. Example, your family all might all have small faces, or big noses. It can all relate back to a primitive trait from centuries ago that can connect you to a specific group such as the “ardi”. Skeletal remains of early human ancestors can help anthropologists reconstruct and learn from the past from how they hunted, where they lived and what type of bone structure they had that gave them advantages and disadvantages over other groups with different traits. Hominin diversity have affected human evolution in many of ways but the discovery of skeletal remains, and those connecting to many different types of human species that’s either still exist or died out.  For the species that still here, were learning how comparable we all lived and how we have the same physical features from small arms, to large skull types. Different ethnicities that lived in different parts of the world that explains features that have smooth hair, from living next to water, or long ape like arms, living dry evergreen forest environment. So the hominin traits really inform us about modern human biology and how our traits evolved over centuries.