Homo erectus

Homo erectus Temporal range: Pleistocene
Homo erectus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Primates
Family:	Hominidae
Genus:	Homo
Binomial name
†Homo erectus (Dubois, 1892)
Synonyms
† Pithecanthropus erectus † Sinanthropus pekinensis

Homo erectus (Latin: "upright man") is an extinct species of the genus Homo.^[1] Fossil remains were found in Java (1890s) and in China (1921). Nearly all of them were lost during World War II, but there are casts that are considered to be reliable evidence.

Early in the 20th century it was believed that the first modern humans lived in Asia. But during the 1950s and 1970s, many fossil finds from East Africa (Kenya) showed that the oldest hominins came from there.^[2]

1. ↑ Dutch anatomist Eugene Dubois (1890s) first described it as Pithecanthropus erectus, based on a skullcap and a modern-looking thigh bone found from the bank of a river in Java. Most of the early discoveries were at Zhoukoudian in China.
2. ↑ H. erectus may be a descendant of earlier hominins such as H. habilis. However, H. habilis and H. erectus may have lived at the same time and have come from a common ancestor. Spoor F. et al 2007 (2007). "Implications of new early Homo fossils from Ileret, east of Lake Turkana, Kenya". Nature. 448 (7154): 688–691. Bibcode:2007Natur.448..688S. doi:10.1038/nature05986. PMID 17687323. S2CID 35845.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)