Study of human origins is known as paleoanthropology.eonthropologists have unearthed fossils of approximately extinct species that are more closely related to humans than to chimpanzees. These species are known as Hominins (Figure34.46, on the facing page). (Although a majority of anthropologists now use the term hominin, its older synonym, hominid, continues to be used by some). Since 1994, fossils of four homminin species dating to more than 4 million years ago have been discovered. The oldest of these hominins, sahelanthropus tchadensis, lived about 6.5 million years ago.