Our human ancestors and their relatives – in pictures

Australopithecus afarensis, 'the southern ape', which lived between 3.8 and 2.9 million years ago Photograph: UIG/Alamy

A sculptor's rendering of A. afarensis in an exhibition at the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Texas. The most complete fossil specimen of the species is 'Lucy', discovered in 1974 at Hadar in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia Photograph: Dave Einsel/Getty Images

Dating from around two million years ago, Australopithecus sediba is known from four incomplete skeletons found in South Africa Photograph: Brett Eloff/PA

A reconstruction of Australopithecus africanus, which lived between two and three million years ago Photograph: Regis Bossu/Corbis

Homo erectus, 'upright man', which lived from around 1.7 million to 200,000 years ago. The species originated in Africa and spread as far as India, China and Indonesia Photograph: UIG/Alamy

Homo neanderthalensis – Neanderthal man – which ranged from western Europe to Central Asia for 100,000 years before dying out about 30,000 years ago Photograph: UIG/Alamy

Homo floresiensis, popularly known as 'the hobbit', a diminutive species of human discovered in Flores, Indonesia – with modern human legs for scale. H. floresiensis lived on the island of Flores in Indonesia between 94,000 and 13,000 years ago Photograph: Corbis

An artist's impression of the potential new human species announced on Wednesday, dubbed the Red Deer Cave people Photograph: Peter Schouten)

The first anatomically modern humans, Homo sapiens, appear in Africa about 200,000 years ago Photograph: UIG/Alamy