Quick Facts
Name: Homo erectus
Dates: 2 million to 108,000 years ago
Locations: Africa, Europe, Asia and Oceania
Notable firsts: First hominin species to leave Africa
Compared with modern humans (Homo sapiens), who have been around for the past 300,000 years, Homo erectus, or "upright human," had a long reign. The ancient human species lived from 2 million years ago until about 100,000 years ago, nearly the entire Pleistocene epoch, which included the last ice age. Fossils also show that H. erectus lived across the globe, including in what are now the countries of South Africa, Kenya, Spain, Georgia, Romania, China and Indonesia.
