Compared to earlier hominin species like Homo erectus, Homo sapiens have a rounded skull, a less pronounced brow ridge, and a vertical forehead. Their faces are flat and lack a protruding snout or large teeth.

Homo erectus was the first of our ancestors to physically resemble modern humans. They were taller and their brain was larger than previous hominin species such as Australopithecus sp. or Homo...

“Homo erectus” means “upright man”. These are extinct species of the archaic humans from the Pleistocene, and their earliest occurrence is close to 2 million years ago. Their last known population is around 117,000–108,000 years ago, H. e. soloensis from Java.

Was Homo erectus the direct ancestor of Homo sapiens, our own species? Data suggest that increasing body size, greater reliance on animal food resources, and increased range size were part of a web of factors that facilitated the initial early dispersal of H. erectus from Africa.