Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genus Pongo, orangutans were originally considered to be one species. From 1996, they were divided into two species: the Bornean orangutan and the Sumatran orangutan. A third species, the Tapanuli orangutan, was identified definitively in 2017. The orangutans are the only surviving species of the subfamily Ponginae, which diverged genetically from the other hominids between 19.3 and 15.7 million years ago.
Orangutan
Flanged male Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutans
Fossil skull of Sivapithecus sivalensis, an extinct relative of orangutan
Adult male (left) and female Tapanuli orangutans
The Hominidae, whose members are known as the great apes or hominids, are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: Pongo ; Gorilla ; Pan ; and Homo, of which only modern humans remain.
Hominidae
Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii)
Humans are one of the four extant hominid genera.
A fossil hominid exhibit at The Museum of Osteology, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma