HOMO ERECTUS

 Fossils of early Homo disappear around the

beginning of Pleistocene, about 1.8 mya - Homo
Erectus appeared

 H. erectus may have coexisted with in eastern

Africa with australopithecines until between 1.2
and 0.7 mya.

 This was the first hominin species to migrate out

of Africa –probably shortly after it appeared
Early discovery:
• 1891, Eugène Dubois, (Trinil 2) in Indonesia; In 1894, Dubois
named the species Pithecanthropus erectus, or ‘erect ape-
man.’ (Pithecanthropus was later changed to Homo)
• Erectus was the most primitive and smallest-brained of all
known early human species;
• Height: 4 ft 9 in - 6 ft 1 in; & Weight: 40 - 68 kg.

Later discoveries:
• Republic of Georgia - dated to 1.8 mya
• Java dated to 1.8 – 1.7 mya; Indonesia in 1969.
• China dated to 700,000 – 900,000 to 250,000 years old.
Davidson Black in 1927 on the basis of a single tooth
• No fossils remains from Western Europe – although artifacts of
this time were found.
 Earliest African H.erectus - Homo ergaster

• A boy on the west side of lake Turkana in 1984; Dated to

1.7 mya; most complete skeleton ever found and
different from other H.erectus specimens

• The boy was taller – would have been 6 ft. had he lived –
interpreted as an adaptation to tropical heat; body was
cooled by sweating; “the first hominin species to
possesses a largely hairless naked skin”

• Based on differences between java specimens and

Turkan boy’s features – it is also suggested that they
probably belonged to two different species.
 Important morphological traits of H.erectus

• Cranial capacity around 1000 c.c – early Homo had 610-

750 c.c.
• Heavy brow bridges
• Bony protuberance at the rear of the skull called nuchal
crest.
• Molars reduced in size and jaw bones less robust.
• Wear pattern of teeth – of molars is different from early
Homo.
• The enamel of H.erectus is heavy; (in early Hominins-
tooth enamel is smoother) – suggesting the diet was
significantly different
 Tools
• Sophisticated stone, tools - axes sharp cleavers and finger
size scrappers – access to elephants.

• Made first wooden spears and wooden bows.

• hunting tools with spear points for throwing.

• Tools for chopping and dismembering carcasses

• Cooperative skill in hunting to drive rhinos, elephants and

mammoths

• Stone tools – abstract thought to make

Olduvai hand ax
1.7 million years old
tools from Ethiopia
 Homo Erectus Groups Hunting

• Meat and bone marrow - gave Homo erectus energy to

grow a larger brain.
• Perhaps they used cooperative skills in hunting
• "Before, we doubted that humans had speech this early,"
• Roberts said. "But for this kind of hunting, which would
require strategies such as ambush, speech would have
been critical.“
• Cut marks made on human bones, similar to those made
with Homo erectus tools on butchered animals - indicates
that cannibalism may have been part of Homo species
behavior for hundreds of thousands of years.
Fire and Cooking

Homo erectus learned to control fire about one million years ago.

First evidence of use of fire by Homo erectus are burned animals

bones found in caves in Zhoukoudian

Early hominids gathered wood from lighting-ignited fires and used it to

cook meat, and perhaps kept the coals burning

• Fire may have been tamed as early as 1.8 million years ago based on
the theory that Homo erectus needed to cook food such as tough meat,
tubers and roots to make them edible.

• Fire turned men from solitary eaters into communal ones.

• In 1773, James Boswell wrote: “My definition of Man is a ‘Cooking

Animal."”
Homo Erectus Food and Shelter

• Homo erectus cooked the vegetables that they ate and thus were able
to eat a wider variety of roots and vegetables with more nutrients.

• Excavations all over the world shown a large variety of plants and
animals were exploited for food at the time Homo erectus

• There is evidence that Homo Erectus constructed 50-foot-long branch

huts with stone slabs or animal skins for floors.

• Homo erectus that lived 350,000 years ago, East Germany constructed
shelters similar to those of Bushmen in southern Africa.

• Circular bone and stone foundations were discovered for three huts
between 9 and 13 feet across. In the middle of on circle, archaeologist
found an elephant tusk, which they speculated was a center post.
Homo Erectus Culture and Thinking
Discovery at some sites of carefully arranged bones,
elephant tusks – gave rise to a discussion on ability to
abstract thinking and advancement of culture.
Some theorized that Homo erectus must have
possessed some form of rudimentary language
because it needed to communicate to organize hunts
and pass on information about tool making.
The parts of the Homo erectus brain associated with
reasoning, symbolism and imagination though were
relatively undeveloped. The frontal lobe, where
complex thinking takes place in modern humans,
was relatively small.
Trend toward the modern human condition:

• There are specimens from a wide time span and a vast

geographical area. The traits of these specimens are
very similar, and show a trend toward the modern
human condition.

Some of the trends linking erectus with sapiens includes:

• Increase in brain size

• A reduction in teeth size, and a decrease in jaw size.
• Vertical shortening of the face.
• Shortening of arm bones (especially the forearm) to
come to a very humanlike limb proportions
• The development of a more barrel-shaped chest.
• The formation of an external nose.
• Reached modern human size in terms of height.