Homo Erectus Was the Human of All Humans

They were the first to resemble what we consider Human bodies, the first to migrate out of Africa, and survived the longest of any Human species, including us, by a lot

A model of the face of an adult female Homo erectus on display in the Hall of Human Origins in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. By reconstruction by John Gurche; photographed by Tim Evanson, image source: Wikimedia Commons

We humans tend to view ourselves as superior to all other animals, including any previous human species. After all, we are quite literally the last humans standing and have conquered nearly every aspect of the planet, including its resources. It’s true, too, that our form of intelligence and remarkable immune system are unique and advantageous in getting us to the point we’re at.

However, in all of our achievements, we’ve forgotten that we, Homo sapiens, are a relatively young species. We’ve only been around for about 400,000 years, which sounds like a long time, yet it’s merely a fraction of the nearly two million years our hominin cousins, Homo erectus, walked Earth. There is still much to learn about them, but from what we know so far, Homo erectus may challenge our status as the most superior human species.

The Discovery

Way back in 1891, a research team led by Dutch physician, paleoanthropologist, and geologist Eugène Dubois was excavating an archeological site on the Indonesian island of Java, near the town…