What are the features of Homo Erectus?

This fossil, catalogued as OH 9, was excavated by Louis S.B. Leakey and is probably about 1.2 million years old. Olduvai Gorge has since yielded additional cranial remains, jaws, and limb bones of H. erectus.

Remains found at Zhoukoudian by Davidson Black became popularly known as Peking man; virtually all of these remains were subsequently lost by 1941 during the Sino-Japanese War (1937–45), though casts of them still exist.

some experts argue H. erectus is restricted largely to Eastern and Southeast Asia, some fossils from Western Asia and Africa should be considered Homo ergaster and European remains are best described as Homo heidelbergensis.

Much of this material is fragmentary, but gaps in our knowledge of East African H. erectus have been filled to some extent through finds made by Louis Leakey’s son, Richard Leakey.

Newer discoveries have since been made in the Zhoukoudian caves and at four other Chinese sites: Gongwangling (Kung-wang-ling) and Chenjiawo (Ch’en-chia-wo) in the Lantian (Lan-t’ien) district of Shaanxi province, Hulu Cave near Nanjing, and Hexian (Ho-hsien) in Anhui province.

Confusing matters more, after analyzing a new skull — called Skull 5 — in 2013, researchers made the controversial argument in the journal Science that various contemporary Homo species, including Homo rudolfensis, Homo habilis and possibly Homo ergaster, were actually Homo erectus.

By the end of World War II the pattern of early discovery had given rise to the idea that H. erectus was a peculiarly Asian expression of early humans. Subsequent discoveries in Africa changed this view, and by the end of the 20th century it was confirmed that Europe also harboured H. erectus.

Since 1970 a number of important fossils have been unearthed at localities on the eastern shore of Lake Turkana (Lake Rudolf) in northwestern Kenya, now commonly referred to as the Koobi Fora sites.

Scientists also don't agree on whether H. erectus is a direct human ancestor to Homo sapiens. "I would put it as an ancestral to living humans," Van Arsdale said. "That doesn't mean that every fossil is an ancestor to humans, but the species as a whole is.

The fossils recovered there may be about 1.7 million years old, based on radiometric dating of the associated volcanic material.

Early African Homo erectus fossils (sometimes called Homo ergaster) are the oldest known early humans to have possessed modern human-like body proportions with relatively elongated legs and shorter arms compared to the size of the torso.

Other notable fossils include the 1.77-million-year-old skull of an elderly man, discovered in Dmanisi, Georgia.

Included in these assemblages are the remains of Australopithecus and probably some representatives of early Homo.

These features are considered adaptations to a life lived on the ground, indicating the loss of earlier tree-climbing adaptations, with the ability to walk and possibly run long distances.

Of several specimens that are clearly Homo, one cranium (KNM-ER 3733) is quite complete and well-preserved.

The man had lost most of his teeth long before he died, causing much of his jaw to deteriorate, according to the Smithsonian Institution.

Compared with earlier fossil humans, note the expanded braincase relative to the size of the face. The most complete fossil individual of this species is known as the ‘Turkana Boy’ – a well-preserved skeleton (though minus almost all the hand and foot bones), dated around 1.6 million years old.

Dated to 1.75 mya, it is likely to be one of the most ancient H. erectus fossils discovered in Africa. It and other specimens from Koobi Fora are considered by some paleontologists to be a separate species they call H. ergaster.

This leads researchers to believe that other members of the man's social group must have cared for him, one of the first examples of such compassionate social behavior in a human ancestor.

Early fossil discoveries from Java (beginning in the 1890s) and China (‘Peking Man’, beginning in the 1920s) comprise the classic examples of this species.

Other H. erectus fossils have been found in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, where anthropologists have discovered primate and early human ancestor fossils going back almost 25 million years.

Other significant finds in this area include a partially intact skeleton (KNM-ER 1808), although it comes from a diseased individual.

Generally considered to have been the first species to have expanded beyond Africa, Homo erectus is considered a highly variable species, spread over two continents (it's not certain whether it reached Europe), and possibly the longest lived early human species - about nine times as long as our own species, Homo sapiens, has been around!

A more complete skeleton named “Turkana Boy” (KNM-WT 15000) was found nearby at Nariokotome, a site on the northwestern shore of Lake Turkana.

Eugène Dubois, a Dutch surgeon, found the first Homo erectus individual (Trinil 2) in Indonesia in 1891. In 1894, Dubois named the species Pithecanthropus erectus, or ‘erect ape-man.