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The first member of the genus Homo to be hairless was Homo erectus, originating about 1.6 million years ago. [6] The dissipation of body heat remains the most widely accepted evolutionary explanation for the loss of body hair in early members of the genus Homo, the surviving member of which is modern humans.
Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site (周口店北京人遗址), also romanized as Choukoutien, is a cave system in suburban Fangshan District, Beijing.It has yielded many archaeological discoveries, including one of the first specimens of Homo erectus (Homo erectus pekinensis), dubbed Peking Man, and a fine assemblage of bones of the giant short-faced hyena Pachycrocuta brevirostris.
Plan of the Happisburgh site, showing exposed and recorded foreshore sediments and location of the footprint surface. The footprints were discovered in May 2013 by Nicholas Ashton, curator at the British Museum, and Martin Bates, from Trinity St David's University in Wales, who were carrying out research as part of the Pathways to Ancient Britain (PAB) project.
They had small brains, when compared to the later Homo sapiens and used simple tools. [2] The earliest human fossils found outside of Africa are skulls and mandibles of the Asian Homo erectus from Dmanisi (modern Republic of Georgia) in Caucasus, which is a land corridor that led to North Asia from Africa and Near East or Middle East.
Homo erectus is the most long-lived species of Homo, having survived for almost two million years. By contrast, Homo sapiens emerged about a third of a million years ago. Regarding many archaic humans , there is no definite consensus as to whether they should be classified as subspecies of H. erectus or H. sapiens or as separate species.
He then initiated his three-decade work at Swartkrans cave, which resulted in the recovery of the second-largest sample of hominid remains from the Cradle. The oldest controlled use of fire by Homo erectus also was discovered at Swartkrans and dated to more than 1 million years ago. [11] [12]
Homo erectus populations lived in southeastern Europe by 1.8 million years ago. [17]The most archaic human fossils from the Middle Pleistocene (780,000–125,000 years ago) [18] have been found in Europe.
These sites attest that early Homo erectus have crossed the North African tracts, which are usually hot and dry. [4]: 2 There is little time between Homo erectus' apparent arrival in South Caucasus around 1.8 Ma, and its probable arrival in East and Southeast Asia.