Extinct human species: How different from us?

Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin: Great Minds Think Alike | NOVA | PBS

Hi, I'm your cousin, a Neanderthal depiction.

Extinct human species: How different were they from us? Well done, Homo sapiens! Yes, that's us, modern humans. We avoided extinction and thrived.

But this was not the case for any other archaic human species. Some think that we simply evolved in a direct line, but they couldn't be more wrong.

Wallace Darwin and Alfred Wallace: And The Theory of Evolution - HubPages

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Hi, I'm "Lucy," Donald Johanson's discovery.

In fact, other species of humans cohabited this planet at the same. Yes, we even inbred (crossbred) with some of them. Though in the end we were the only ones who made it to this day.

But how different were these early human species from us, really? Click through the gallery to find out: More

How shall we evolve more quickly than Wallace/Darwin imagined?