Homo erectus

Examples of Homo erectus in the following topics:

• Homo sapiens

  • Humans (variously Homo sapiens and Homo sapiens sapiens) are primates and the only existing species of the genus Homo.
  • The first Homo species to move out of Africa was H. erectus .
  • H. erectus had a cranial capacity greater than that of H. habilis.
  • In addition, it has been suggested that H. erectus may have been the first hominin to use rafts to travel over oceans.
  • Homo erectus is an extinct species of hominin that lived throughout most of the Pleistocene, with the earliest first fossil evidence dating to around 1.8 million years ago and the most recent to around 143,000 years ago

• Genus Homo

  • For many years, fossils of a species called Homo habilis were the oldest examples in the genus Homo, but in 2010, a new species called Homo gautengensis was proposed that may be older, although it is not well accepted.
  • A number of species, sometimes called archaic Homo sapiens, apparently evolved from H. erectus starting about 500,000 years ago.
  • This species encompasses archaic human forms such as Homo erectus and Neanderthals as well as modern forms, which evolved worldwide to the diverse populations of modern Homo sapiens sapiens.
  • Homo erectus had a prominent brow and a nose that pointed downward rather than forward.
  • Compare and contrast the evolution and characteristics associated with the various Homo species:  Homo habilis, erectus, and sapiens

• Early Homo

  • Homo is the genus of great apes that includes humans and species closely related to them.
  • The most salient physiological development between the earlier hominin species and Homo is the increase in cranial capacity, although body size also increased in Homo erectus.
  • The species of early Homo, Homo habilis, resembled australopiths in many distinct ways, but they had smaller teeth and jaws and more modern-looking feet.
  • With the arrival of Homo erectus in the fossil record, cranial capacity doubled to 850 cm3.
  • Homo erectus was the first of the hominins to leave Africa.

• Early Human Evolution

  • Hominins, who were bipedal in comparison to the other hominoids who were primarily quadrupedal, includes those groups that probably gave rise to our species: Australopithecus africanus, Homo habilis, and Homo erectus, along with non-ancestral groups such as Australopithecus boisei.

• Early Hominins

  • The hominin Australopithecus evolved 4 million years ago and is believed to be in the ancestral line of the genus Homo.
  • This genus is of particular interest to us as it is thought that our genus, genus Homo, evolved from Australopithecus about 2 million years ago.

• Primates

  • Hominini is the primate tribe of Homininae that includes Homo and other members of the human species after the split from the tribe Panini (chimpanzees).
  • Homo, estimated to be about 2.4 million years old, evolved from Australopithecus ancestors.
  • The human lineage (Homo genus) split from chimpanzees (Pan genus) about 5 million years ago.

• Use of Whole-Genome Sequences of Model Organisms

  • Genomes of other model organisms, such as the mouse Mus musculus, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, and the human Homo sapiens are now known.

• Present-Time Extinctions

  • The sixth, or Holocene, mass extinction appears to have begun earlier than previously believed and is mostly due to the activities of Homo sapiens.

• Characteristics and Evolution of Primates

  • The great apes include the genera Pan (chimpanzees and bonobos), Gorilla (gorillas), Pongo (orangutans), and Homo (humans) .

• Introduction to the Study of Biology

  • Modern-appearing humans, Homo sapiens, are a relatively new species, having inhabited this planet for only the last 200,000 years (approximately).