A new study verifies the age and origin of one of the oldest specimens of Homo erectus — a very successful early human who roamed the world for nearly 2 million years. In doing so, the researchers also found two new specimens at the site — likely the earliest pieces of the Homo erectus skeleton yet discovered. Details are published today in the journal Nature Communications.
“Homo erectus is the first hominin that we know about that has a body plan more like our own and seemed to be on its way to being more human-like,” said Ashley Hammond, an assistant curator in the American Museum of Natural History’s Division of Anthropology and the lead author of the new study. “It had longer lower limbs than upper limbs, a torso shaped more like ours, a larger cranial capacity than earlier hominins, and is associated with a tool industry — it’s a faster, smarter hominin than Australopithecus and earliest Homo.”
In 1974, scientists at the East Turkana site in Kenya found one of the oldest pieces of evidence for H. erectus: a small skull fragment that
— source American Museum of Natural History | Apr 13, 2021