About & Methodology
How this site is built, where the data comes from, and our approach to scientific accuracy.
Mission
YourHumanity is a scientific resource exploring hominin evolution spanning 10 million years, from the earliest ape ancestors to modern humans. The site aims to make paleoanthropological and sociological research accessible while maintaining scientific rigor. Every factual claim is grounded in peer-reviewed literature, and where evidence is debated, absent, or uncertain, this is explicitly indicated.
Data at a Glance
Epistemic Transparency
Paleoanthropology is a field where interpretations frequently change as new fossils are discovered and analytical methods improve. We use a systematic approach to flag uncertainty:
| Indicator | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Accepted | Widely accepted by the paleoanthropological community |
| Debated | Classification or interpretation is actively debated among researchers |
| Proposed | Recently proposed; not yet widely accepted or evaluated |
| Confirmed | Multiple independent lines of evidence support this claim |
| Probable | Supported by evidence but with some remaining uncertainty |
| Disputed | Alternative interpretations exist; evidence is contested |
| Strong | High confidence based on direct evidence |
| Moderate | Reasonable confidence with some inferential steps |
| Weak | Limited evidence; interpretation is tentative |
| Speculative | Inferred from indirect evidence or analogy; highly uncertain |
Data Sources
All data is curated from peer-reviewed scientific literature and publicly available scientific databases:
| Source | Data |
|---|---|
| Paleobiology Database | Fossil occurrences with GPS coordinates, dating, and taxonomy |
| CrossRef | Reference abstracts and citation counts |
| TimeTree 5 | Molecular divergence times with confidence intervals |
| MorphoSource | 3D fossil scan metadata and viewer links |
| Open Context | Archaeological site records |
| NCBI GenBank | Mitochondrial genome metadata |
| NCBI Gene | Evolutionary gene records |
| Allen Ancient DNA Resource | Ancient DNA sample metadata |
Technical Stack
This site is built with PHP 8.2, MySQL/MariaDB, and nginx. Interactive visualizations use D3.js for timelines, brain comparisons, and charts. Leaflet powers the archaeological evidence maps. All libraries are self-hosted with no external tracking or analytics.
Contributing
If you are a researcher and notice an error, outdated information, or would like to suggest additions, please contact us. Authors with appropriate credentials can request contributor access to help maintain and expand the database.