Late Miocene

The Late Miocene (also known as Upper Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene Epoch made up of two stages. The Tortonian and Messinian stages comprise the Late Miocene sub-epoch, which lasted from 11.63 Ma (million years ago) to 5.333 Ma.

System/ Period	Series/ Epoch	Stage/ Age	Age (Ma)
Quaternary	Pleistocene	Gelasian	younger
Neogene	Pliocene	Piacenzian	2.58	3.600
		Zanclean	3.600	5.333
	Miocene	Messinian	5.333	7.246
		Tortonian	7.246	11.63
		Serravallian	11.63	13.82
		Langhian	13.82	15.97
		Burdigalian	15.97	20.44
		Aquitanian	20.44	23.03
Paleogene	Oligocene	Chattian	older
Subdivision of the Neogene Period according to the ICS, as of 2017[1]

The evolution of Homo

The gibbons (family Hylobatidae) and orangutans (genus Pongo) were the first groups to split from the line leading to the hominins, including humans, then gorillas (genus Gorilla), and finally chimpanzees and bonobos (genus Pan). The splitting date between hominin and chimpanzee lineages is placed by some between 4 and 8 million years ago, that is, during the Late Miocene.^[2][3][4][5]