What Development Erectus Made in Post Africa to Europe 1.5 million Years Ago

Sometime between 14 and 16 million years ago, the first great apes appeared, with Orang-utans branching off 14 million years ago. The Orang-utans spread into southern Asia after this, while the other great apes remained in Africa. The largest primate ever, Gigantopithecus, first arose some 9 million years ago, only becoming extinct a few hundred thousand years ago.

Approximately 4 million years ago, the first Australopithecus evolved: the first members of the Hominina subtribe (a taxonomic classification more specific than family but less specific than genus). Shortly thereafter, the first evidence of stone tool use appears: presently at 3.4-to-3.7 million years ago.

While both groups survived for a time, the larger-brained group was more adaptable to changes, and they continued to survive. This is the evolutionary path that we think led to the development of the genus Homo, which first arose about 2.5 million years ago. Homo habilis, known colloquially as “handy man,” had larger brains than their Australopithecus counterparts and displayed far more widespread tool use.

About 1.9 million years ago, Homo erectus evolved. This human ancestor not only walked fully upright, but had much larger brains than Homo habilis: nearly twice as large, on average. Homo erectus became the first direct human ancestor to leave Africa, and the first to display evidence of using fire. Homo habilis was likely driven to extinction more than a million years ago, as was the last Australopithecus.

Across the world, new examples of the genus Homo emerged, including Homo antecessor in Europe (which may be an evolved habilis or erectus, or an early form of heidelbergensis) about 1.2 million years ago, followed by Homo heidelbergensis some 600,000 years ago. Approximately 700,000 years ago, the earliest evidence for cooking appears; about 500,000 years ago, the first evidence for clothing appears.