Homo erectus Fossil range: Pleistocene
Calvaria Sangiran II Original, Collection Koenigswald, Senckenberg Museum
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Primates Family: Hominidae Genus: Homo Species: H. erectus
Binomial name
†Homo erectus (Dubois, 1892)
Synonyms
† Pithecanthropus erectus † Sinanthropus pekinensis † Javanthropus soloensis † Meganthropus paleojavanicus The Pleistocene epoch (IPA: ) on the geologic timescale is the period from 1,808,000 to 11,550 years BP. The Pleistocene epoch had been intended to cover the worlds recent period of repeated glaciations. ... The calvaria (or calva, or skullcap) is the roof of the skull. ... Sangiran is an archaeological excavation site at the island of Java in Indonesia. ... Professor Dr. Gustav Heinrich Ralph (often cited as G. H. R.) von Koenigswald (1902-1982) was a distinguished paleontologist and geologist who conducted research on hominins, including Homo erectus. ... T. Rex The Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt is the largest museum of natural history in Germany. ... For other uses, see Scientific classification (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Animal (disambiguation). ... Typical Classes See below Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates. ... Subclasses & Infraclasses Subclass †Allotheria* Subclass Prototheria Subclass Theria Infraclass †Trituberculata Infraclass Metatheria Infraclass Eutheria Mammals (class Mammalia) are warm-blooded, vertebrate animals characterized by the presence of sweat glands, including milk producing sweat glands, and by the presence of: hair, three middle ear bones used in hearing, and a neocortex... Families 15, See classification A primate is any member of the biological order Primates, the group that contains all the species commonly related to the lemurs, monkeys, and apes, with the latter category including humans. ... Genera The hominids are the members of the biological family Hominidae (the great apes), which includes humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans. ... Species Homo sapiens See text for extinct species. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Eugene Dubois (January 28, 1858 - December 16, 1940) was a Dutch anatomist, who earned world-wide fame with the discovery of Homo erectus in Java in 1891. ... Year 1892 (MDCCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... In scientific nomenclature, synonyms are different scientific names used for a single taxon. ... Pithecanthropus erectus redirects here. ... Trinomial name Homo erectus pekinensis (Black, 1927) Peking Man (sometimes now called Beijing Man), also called Sinanthropus pekinensis (currently Homo erectus pekinensis), is an example of Homo erectus. ...

Homo erectus (Latin: "upright man") is an extinct species of the genus Homo. Dutch anatomist Eugene Dubois (1890s) first described it as Pithecanthropus erectus, based on a calotte (skullcap) and a modern-looking femur found from the bank of the Solo River at Trinil, in central Java. However, thanks to Canadian anatomist Davidson Black's (1921) initial description of a lower molar, which was dubbed Sinanthropus pekinensis, most of the early and spectacular discoveries of this taxon took place at Zhoukoudian in China. German anatomist Franz Weidenreich provided much of the detailed description of this material in several monographs published in the journal Palaeontologica Sinica (Series D). However, nearly all of the original specimens were lost during World War II. High quality Weidenreichian casts do exist and are considered to be reliable evidence; these are curated at the American Museum of Natural History (NYC) and at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (Beijing). For other uses, see Latin (disambiguation). ... Species Homo sapiens See text for extinct species. ... Eugene Dubois (January 28, 1858 - December 16, 1940) was a Dutch anthropologist, who earned world-wide fame with the discovery of Homo erectus in Java in 1891. ... Pithecanthropus erectus redirects here. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Trinil is a palaeoanthropological site on the banks of the Bengawan Solo River in Java, Indonesia. ... Central Java (Indonesian: Jawa Tengah) is a province of Indonesia. ... Davidson Black Dr. Davidson Black (1884 – 1934) was a Canadian paleoanthropologist, best known for his discovery of Sinanthropus pekinensis (now Homo erectus pekinensis). ... Trinomial name Homo erectus pekinensis (Black, 1927) Peking Man (sometimes now called Beijing Man), also called Sinanthropus pekinensis (currently Homo erectus pekinensis), is an example of Homo erectus. ... Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site - the Caves (taken in July 2004) Zhoukoudian or Choukoutien (周口店) is a cave system near Beijing in China. ... Franz Weidenreich (7 June 1873, Edenkoben, Germany- 11 July 1948, New York City U.S.) was a German anatomist and physical anthropologist who studued human evolution. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (abbreviated to IVPP) is a prominent research institution and collections repository for Chinese fossils, including many dinosaur and pterosaur specimens (many from the Yixian Formation). ...

Throughout much of the 20th century, anthropologists debated the role of H. erectus in human evolution. Early in the century, due to discoveries on Java and at Zhoukoudian, it was believed that modern humans first evolved in Asia. This contradicted Charles Darwin's idea of African human origin. However, during the 1950s and 1970s, numerous fossil finds from East Africa (Kenya) yielded evidence that the oldest hominins originated there. It is now believed that H. erectus is a descendant of earlier hominins such as Australopithecus and early Homo species (e.g., H. habilis), although new findings in 2007 suggest that H. habilis and H. erectus coexisted and may be separate lineages from a common ancestor.^[1] For the history of humans on Earth, see History of the world. ... For other people of the same surname, and places and things named after Charles Darwin, see Darwin. ... Tribes Gorillini Hominini and see text Homininae is a subfamily of Hominidae, including Homo sapiens and some extinct relatives, as well as the gorillas and the chimpanzees. ... For the song by Modest Mouse, see Sad Sappy Sucker. ... Binomial name †Homo habilis Leakey et al, 1964 Homo habilis (IPA ) (handy man, skillful person) is a species of the genus Homo, which lived from approximately 2. ...

H. erectus originally migrated from Africa during the Early Pleistocene, possibly as a result of the operation of the Saharan pump, around 2.0 million years ago, and dispersed throughout most of the Old World, reaching as far as Southeast Asia. Early Pleistocene (also known as Lower Pleistocene, or Calabrian) is a stage of the Pleistocene Epoch. ... The Sahara Pump Theory is one which is used to explain the various phases by which African flora and African fauna have left that continent to penetrate the Middle East and possibly, thereafter, the rest of the world. ... The Old World consists of those parts of Earth known to Europeans, Asians, and Africans before the voyages of Christopher Columbus; it includes Europe, Asia, and Africa (collectively known as Africa-Eurasia), plus surrounding islands. ...

Fossilized remains 1.8 and 1.0 million years old have been found in Africa (e.g., Lake Turkana and Olduvai Gorge), Europe (Georgia, Spain), Indonesia (e.g., Sangiran and Trinil), Vietnam, and China (e.g., Shaanxi). H. erectus is an important hominin because it is believed to have been the first to leave Africa. However, some scholars believe that H. erectus is not the direct ancestor of modern H. sapiens.   (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ShÇŽnxÄ«; Wade-Giles: Shan-hsi; Postal map spelling: Shensi) is a north-central province of the Peoples Republic of China, and includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River as well as the Qinling Mountains across the... Human beings are defined variously in biological, spiritual, and cultural terms, or in combinations thereof. ...

A homo erectus skull, Tchadanthropus uxoris, discovered in 1961, is the partial skull of the first early hominid till then discovered in Central Africa, found in Chad during an expedition led by the anthropologist Yves Coppens.^[2] While some then thought it was a variety of the Homo habilis,^[3] the Tchadanthropus uxoris is no longer considered to be a separate species, and scholars consider it to be Homo erectus,^[2][4] and it is even argued that the skull is just a modern human, Homo sapiens sapiens, weathered by the elements to look like an australopithecine skull.^[5] Year 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... A hominid is any member of the biological family Hominidae (the great apes), including the extinct and extant humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans. ... See Anthropology. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Binomial name Leakey et al, 1964 Homo habilis (pronounced ) (handy man, skillful person) is a species of the genus Homo, which lived from approximately 2. ... Human beings are defined variously in biological, spiritual, and cultural terms, or in combinations thereof. ... This term australopithecine refers to two very closely related hominin genera: Australopithecus Paranthropus When used alone, the term refers to both genera together. ...

Description

Homo erectus has fairly derived morphological features and a larger cranial capacity than that of Homo habilis, although new finds from Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia show distinctively small crania. The forehead (frontal bone) is less sloping and the teeth are smaller (quantification of these differences is difficult, however; see below). Homo erectus would bear a striking resemblance to modern humans, but had a brain about 75 percent (950 to 1100 cc) of the size of that of a modern human. These early hominines were tall, on average standing about 1.79 m (5 feet, 10 inches), and much stronger than modern humans.^[6] The sexual dimorphism between males and females was slightly greater than seen in modern Homo sapiens with males being about 20-30% larger than females. The discovery of the skeleton KNM-WT 15000 (Turkana boy) made near Lake Turkana, Kenya by Richard Leakey and Kamoya Kimeu in 1984 was a breakthrough in interpreting the physiological status of H. erectus. A mans visible teeth. ... Homo sapiens (Latin: wise man) is the scientific name for the human species. ... Turkana Boy or Nariokotome Boy is the designation given to fossil KNM-WT 15000[1], a nearly complete skeleton of an 11- or 12-year-old hominid boy who died 1. ... View over Lake Turkana Lake Turkana, formerly known as Lake Rudolf, is a lake in the Great Rift Valley in Kenya (although the far northern end of the lake crosses into Ethiopia), which covers a surface area of 6405 km² (2473 mi²), making it the worlds largest permanent desert... Richard Erskine Frere Leakey (born 19 December 1944 in Nairobi, Kenya), is a Kenyan paleontologist and conservationist. ... Kamoya Kimeu, (born c. ... This article is about the year. ...

Usage of tools and general abilities

A reconstruction of Homo erectus. Anthropologists believe that H. erectus was the first hominid to control fire.

Homo erectus used more diverse and sophisticated tools than its predecessors. This has been theorized to have been a result of Homo erectus first using tools of the Oldowan style and later progressing to the Acheulean style. The surviving tools from both periods are all made of stone. Oldowan tools are the oldest known formed tools and date as far back as about 2.6 million years ago. The Acheulean era began about 1.2 million years ago and ended about 500,000 years ago. The primary innovation associated with Acheulean handaxes is that the stone was chipped on both sides to form two cutting edges. In addition it has been suggested that Homo erectus may have been the first hominid to use rafts to travel over oceans but however this idea is controversial within the scientific community.^[7] Image File history File links Homo_Erectus. ... Image File history File links Homo_Erectus. ... A reconstruction of Homo erectus. ... For other uses, see Tool (disambiguation). ... Oldowan is an anthropological designation for an industry of stone tools used by prehistoric hominids in the very early Paleolithic. ... Acheulean hand-axes from Kent. ... A hand axe is a bifacial Paleolithic core tool. ...

Social aspects

Homo erectus (along with Homo ergaster) was probably the first early human species to fit squarely into the category of a hunter-gatherer society. Anthropologists such as Richard Leakey believe that H. erectus was socially closer to modern humans than the more primitive species before it. The increased cranial capacity generally coincides with the more sophisticated tool technology occasionally found with the species' remains. Binomial name †Homo ergaster Groves & Mazak, 1975 Homo ergaster (working man) is an extinct hominid species (or subspecies, according to some authorities) which lived throughout eastern and southern Africa between 1. ... In anthropology, the hunter-gatherer way of life is that led by certain societies of the Neolithic Era based on the exploitation of wild plants and animals. ... Richard Erskine Frere Leakey (born 19 December 1944 in Nairobi, Kenya), is a Kenyan paleontologist and conservationist. ...

The discovery of Turkana boy in 1984 has shown evidence that despite H. erectus's human-like anatomy, they were not capable of producing sounds of a complexity comparable to modern speech. They may have communicated with a pre-language lacking the fully developed structure of human language but more developed than the basic communication used by chimpanzees.^[8] Turkana Boy or Nariokotome Boy is the designation given to fossil KNM-WT 15000[1], a nearly complete skeleton of an 11- or 12-year-old hominid boy who died 1. ... This article is about the year. ... Bold text This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Type species Simia troglodytes Blumenbach, 1775 distribution of Species Pan troglodytes Pan paniscus Chimpanzee, often shortened to chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of apes in the genus Pan. ...

The latest populations of Homo erectus were probably the first hominid societies to live in small scale (presumably egalitarian) band societies similar to modern hunter gatherer band societies.^[9] A Band Society is the simplest form of human society. ...

Homo erectus was the first hominid to hunt, use complex tools and care after weaker companions.^[6] A hominid is any member of the biological family Hominidae (the great apes), including the extinct and extant humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans. ...

H. erectus migrated all throughout the Great Rift Valley, even up to the Red Sea.^[10] Early humans, in the person of Homo erectus, were learning to master their environment for the first time. Attributed to H. erectus, around 1.8 million years ago in the Olduvai Gorge, is the oldest known evidence of mammoth consumption (BioScience, April 2006, Vol. 56 No. 4, p. 295). Bruce Bower has suggested that H. erectus may have built rafts and traveled over oceans, although this possibility is considered controversial.^[11] Northern section of the Great Rift Valley. ... Location of the Red Sea The Red Sea is an inlet of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia. ... Olduvai Gorge, February 2006 Olduvai Gorge from space Topography of Olduvai Gorge The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge is commonly referred to as The Cradle of Mankind. ... This article is about the genus Mammuthus. ... Traditional raft, from 1884 edition Huckleberry Finn and Jim Children successfully test their raft, in Brixham harbour, south Devon, England. ...

A site called Terra Amata, which lies on an ancient beach location on the French Riviera, seems to have been occupied by Homo erectus and contains the earliest (least disputed) evidence of controlled fire dated at around 300,000 years BP. There are also older Homo erectus sites in France, China, Vietnam, and other areas that seem to indicate controlled use of fire, some dating back 500,000 to 1.5 million years ago. A presentation at the Paleoanthropology Society annual meeting in Montreal, Canada in March of 2004 stated that there is evidence for controlled fires in excavations in northern Israel from about 690,000 to 790,000 years ago. Despite these examples, some scholars continue to assert that the controlled use of fire was atypical of Homo erectus, and that the use of controlled fire is more typical of advanced species of the Homo genus (such as Homo antecessor, H. heidelbergensis and H. neanderthalensis). Terra Amata is an archaeological site nearFrench town of Nice. ... For other uses, see Beach (disambiguation). ... The Quai des États-Unis in Nice on the French Riviera at night. ... For other uses, see Fire (disambiguation). ... Paleoanthropology, which combines the disciplines of paleontology and physical anthropology, is the study of ancient humans as found in fossil hominid evidence such as petrifacted bones and footprints. ... This article needs cleanup. ... Binomial name †Homo antecessor Bermudez de Castro et al. ... Binomial name †Homo heidelbergensis Schoetensack, 1908 Homo heidelbergensis (Heidelberg Man) is an extinct species of the genus Homo and the direct ancestor of Homo neanderthalensis in Europe. ... Binomial name Homo neanderthalensis King, 1864 The Neanderthal or Neandertal was a species of genus Homo (Homo neanderthalensis) that inhabited Europe and parts of western Asia from about 230,000 to 29,000 years ago (in the Middle Palaeolithic, early Stone Age). ...

Homo erectus much like the later Middle Paleolithic hominid Homo neanderthalensis^[12] may have interbreed with modern humans in Europe and Asia.^[13] The Middle Paleolithic (or Middle Palaeolithic) is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. ... Binomial name Homo neanderthalensis King, 1864 The Neanderthal or Neandertal was a species of genus Homo (Homo neanderthalensis) that inhabited Europe and parts of western Asia from about 230,000 to 29,000 years ago (in the Middle Palaeolithic, early Stone Age). ... For other uses, see Europe (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Asia (disambiguation). ...

Classification

There has been a great deal of discussion concerning the taxonomy of Homo erectus (see the 1984 and 1994 volumes of Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg), and it relates to the question whether or not H. erectus is a geographically widespread species (found in Africa, Europe, and Asia), or is it a classic Asian lineage that evolved from less cranially derived African H. ergaster.

While some have argued (and insisted) that Ernst Mayr's biological species definition cannot be used here to test the above hypotheses, we can, however, examine the amount of morphological (cranial) variation within known H. erectus / H. ergaster specimens, and compare it to what we see in different extant primate groups with similar geographical distribution or close evolutionary relationship. Thus, if the amount of variation between H. erectus and H. ergaster is greater than what we see within a species of, say, macaques, then H. erectus and H. ergaster should be considered as two different species. Of course, the extant model (of comparison) is very important and choosing the right one(s) can be difficult. In biology, a species is the basic unit of biodiversity. ...

Descendants and subspecies

Homo erectus remains one of the most successful and long-lived species of the Homo genus. It is generally considered to have given rise to a number of descendant species and subspecies. The oldest known specimen of the ancient human was found in southern Africa.

• Homo erectus
  • Homo erectus yuanmouensis
  • Homo erectus lantianensis
  • Homo erectus pekinensis
  • Homo erectus palaeojavanicus
  • Homo erectus soloensis

Other species Trinomial name Homo erectus yuanmouensis Yuanmou Man (元谋人), Homo erectus yuanmouensis, refers to an ancestral human whose remnants, two teeth, were discovered on May 1, 1965 near Danawu Village in Yuanmou County, Yunnan, China. ... Trinomial name Homo erectus lantianensis (J.K.Woo, 1964) The Lantian Man, Homo erectus lantianensis, initially Sinanthropus lantianensis, (and sometimes Lantien Man) refers to an ancestral human whose discovery in 1963 was first described by J.K.Woo in 1964. ... Trinomial name Homo erectus pekinensis (Black, 1927) Peking Man (sometimes now called Beijing Man), also called Sinanthropus pekinensis (currently Homo erectus pekinensis), is an example of Homo erectus. ... Trinomial name †Homo erectus palaeojavanicus? Meganthropus is a name commonly given to several large jaw and skull fragments from Sangiran, Central Java. ... Trinomial name Homo erectus soloensis (Oppenoorth, 1932) Homo erectus soloensis (formerly classified as Homo sapiens soloensis) is a subspecies of the extinct hominid, Homo erectus. ...

• Homo floresiensis
• Homo antecessor
• Homo heidelbergensis
• Homo neanderthalensis
• Homo sapiens
  • Homo sapiens sapiens
• Homo rhodesiensis
• Homo cepranensis

The discovery of Homo floresiensis, and particularly its recent survival, has raised the possibility that numerous descendant species of Homo erectus may have existed in the islands of Southeast Asia which await fossil discovery. Some scientists are skeptical about the claim that Homo floresiensis is a descendant of Homo erectus. One theory holds that the fossils are from a modern human with microcephaly, while another one claims that they are from a group of pygmys. Binomial name P. Brown , 2004 Homo floresiensis (Man of Flores, nicknamed Hobbit) is the name for a possible species in the genus Homo, remarkable for its small body, small brain, and survival until relatively recent times. ... Binomial name †Homo antecessor Bermudez de Castro et al. ... Binomial name †Homo heidelbergensis Schoetensack, 1908 Homo heidelbergensis (Heidelberg Man) is an extinct species of the genus Homo and the direct ancestor of Homo neanderthalensis in Europe. ... For other uses, see Neanderthal (disambiguation). ... Homo sapiens (Latin: wise man) is the scientific name for the human species. ... Human beings are defined variously in biological, spiritual, and cultural terms, or in combinations thereof. ... Homo rhodesiensis (AKA Rhodesian Man, or Broken Hill Skull) is a homo species resembling Homo neandertalis, but whose remains were found in Africa. ... Binomial name †Homo cepranensis Mallegni et al, 2003 Homo cepranensis is a proposed name for a hominin species discovered in 1994 known from only one skull cap. ... Location of Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Individual fossils

Some of the major Homo erectus fossils:

• Indonesia (island of Java): Trinil 2 (holotype), Sangiran collection, Sambungmachan collection, Ngandong collection
• China: Lantian (Gongwangling and Chenjiawo), Yunxian, Zhoukoudian, Nanjing, Hexian
• India: Narmada (taxonomic status debated!)
• Kenya: WT 15000 (Nariokotome), ER 3883, ER 3733
• Tanzania: OH 9
• Vietnam: Northern, Tham Khuyen, Hoa Binh
• Republic of Georgia: Dmanisi collection
• Turkey: Kocabas fossil^[14]

Some scholars consider specimens outside of Asia to be Homo ergaster. In other words, Homo erectus is an Asian lineage derived from Homo ergaster, which originated in Africa ca. 2.0 million years ago (Ma).

See also

• Java Man
• List of fossil sites (with link directory)
• List of primate and hominin fossils (with images)

Pithecanthropus erectus redirects here. ... List of fossil sites: // ^ http://www. ... The following charts give a brief overview of several notable primate fossil finds relating to human evolution. ...

References

A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ... Springer Science+Business Media or Springer (IPA: ) is a worldwide publishing company based in Germany which focuses on academic journals and books in the fields of science, technology, mathematics, and medicine. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 12th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also see: 2002 (number). ... is the 192nd day of the year (193rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Nature is a prominent scientific journal, first published on 4 November 1869. ... Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is an international publishing company that publishes scientific journals. ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ... is the 72nd day of the year (73rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ... Merritt Ruhlen is a lecturer in Anthropological Sciences and Human Biology at Stanford, and a co-director of the Santa Fe Institute Program on the Evolution of Human Languages. ... A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ...

External links

• MNSU
• Archaeology Info
• Smithsonian
• Homo erectus at Stanford University
• Possible co-existence with Homo Habilis - BBC News
• John Hawk's discussion of the Kocabas fossil