Editing Human evolution (section)

=== ''H. ergaster'' and ''H. erectus'' ===
[[File:Homo-erectus Turkana-Boy (Ausschnitt) Fundort Nariokotome, Kenia, Rekonstruktion im Neanderthal Museum.jpg|thumb|right|230px|Reconstruction of [[Turkana Boy]] who lived 1.5 to 1.6 million years ago]]
The first fossils of ''Homo erectus'' were discovered by Dutch physician [[Eugene Dubois]] in 1891 on the Indonesian island of Java. He originally named the material ''[[Anthropopithecus]] erectus'' (1892–1893, considered at this point as a chimpanzee-like fossil primate) and ''[[Pithecanthropus]] erectus'' (1893–1894, changing his mind as of based on its morphology, which he considered to be intermediate between that of humans and apes).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Turner |first=William |author-link=William Turner Thiselton-Dyer |date=April 1895 |title=On M. Dubois' Description of Remains recently found in Java, named by him ''Pithecanthropus erectus''. With Remarks on so-called Transitional Forms between Apes and Man |journal=Journal of Anatomy and Physiology |volume=29 |issue=Pt 3 |pages=424–445 |pmc=1328414 |pmid=17232143}}</ref> Years later, in the 20th century, the German physician and [[paleoanthropologist]] [[Franz Weidenreich]] (1873–1948) compared in detail the characters of Dubois' [[Java Man]], then named ''Pithecanthropus erectus'', with the characters of the [[Peking Man]], then named ''Sinanthropus pekinensis''. Weidenreich concluded in 1940 that because of their anatomical similarity with modern humans it was necessary to gather all these specimens of Java and China in a single species of the genus ''Homo'', the species ''H.&nbsp;erectus''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Weidenreich |first=Franz |date=July 1940 |title=Some Problems Dealing with Ancient Man |journal=American Anthropologist |volume=42 |issue=3 |pages=375–383 |doi=10.1525/aa.1940.42.3.02a00010 |issn=0002-7294 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last1=Grine |first1=Frederick E. |date=2009 |pages=197–207 |publisher=Springer Netherlands |isbn=978-1-4020-9979-3 |last2=Fleagle |first2=John G. |title=The First Humans – Origin and Early Evolution of the Genus ''Homo'' |chapter=The First Humans: A Summary Perspective on the Origin and Early Evolution of the Genus ''Homo'' |series="Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology" series |doi=10.1007/978-1-4020-9980-9_17}}</ref>

''Homo erectus'' lived from about 1.8 Ma to about 70,000 years ago – which would indicate that they were probably wiped out by the Toba catastrophe; however, nearby ''[[H.&nbsp;floresiensis]]'' survived it. The early phase of ''H.&nbsp;erectus'', from 1.8 to 1.25 Ma, is considered by some to be a separate species, ''H.&nbsp;ergaster'', or as ''H.&nbsp;erectus ergaster'', a subspecies of ''H.&nbsp;erectus''. Many paleoanthropologists now use the term ''Homo ergaster'' for the non-Asian forms of this group, and reserve ''H.&nbsp;erectus'' only for those fossils that are found in Asia and meet certain skeletal and dental requirements which differ slightly from ''H.&nbsp;ergaster''.

In Africa in the Early Pleistocene, 1.5–1 Ma, some populations of ''Homo habilis'' are thought to have evolved larger brains and to have made more elaborate stone tools; these differences and others are sufficient for anthropologists to classify them as a new species, ''Homo erectus''—in Africa.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Spoor |first1=Fred |last2=Wood |first2=Bernard A. |last3=Zonneveld |first3=Frans |date=June 23, 1994 |title=Implications of early hominid labyrinthine morphology for evolution of human bipedal locomotion |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume=369 |issue=6482 |pages=645–648 |bibcode=1994Natur.369..645S |doi=10.1038/369645a0 |issn=0028-0836 |pmid=8208290 |s2cid=4344784}}</ref> This species also may have used fire to cook meat. [[Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human|Richard Wrangham]]  notes that ''Homo'' seems to have been ground dwelling, with reduced intestinal length, smaller dentition, and "brains [swollen] to their current, horrendously fuel-inefficient size",<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ings |first=Simon |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/6250132/Catching-Fire-How-Cooking-Made-Us-Human-by-Richard-Wrangham-review.html |archive-url= https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/6250132/Catching-Fire-How-Cooking-Made-Us-Human-by-Richard-Wrangham-review.html |archive-date=January 11, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=''Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human'' by Richard Wrangham: Review |access-date=February 23, 2016 |date=October 4, 2009}}{{cbignore}}</ref> and hypothesizes that control of fire and cooking, which released increased nutritional value, was the key adaptation that separated ''Homo'' from tree-sleeping Australopithecines.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wrangham |first=Richard |date=2011 |title=Catching Fire: How cooking made us human}}{{page needed|date=December 2021}}</ref>
{{See also|Control of fire by early humans}}