Homo erectus

Homo erectus

Homo erectus, meaning, 'Upright Man', was one of our first major direct 'homo' genus hominid ancestor - though our direct hominid ancestors go back further in the Australopithecines and others. It was preceded by Homo habilis. They lived between 1.5 Million and 50,000-30,000 years ago. Homo erectus was by far the most successful human in terms of time extant; we have been around as our specific subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens for just 10,000 years (200,000 years for Homo sapiens overall)