The teaching of human evolution is based on the identification of species belonging to the genus Homo. Today, however, the boundaries of the genus Homo are being reassessed and are the subject of debate within the scientific community: for some, the chimpanzee is excluded from the genus Homo, while for others, it should be included. It is not our purpose here to decide between these two positions, but rather to highlight the didactic implications of this scientific debate. In this paper, we focus on the characterization of the genus Homo between the field of scientific research, the field of pre-service teacher training education, and the field of secondary education. In order to follow this characterization, we rely on the concept of didactic transposition and the notion of curricular coherence within the framework of the didactics of the curriculum. The analysis of the French curricula for pre-service teacher training and secondary education shows that, in this country, the scientific debate on the genus Homo limits is absent from these curricula, which leads to an essentialization.