Homo erectus

African populations of H. erectus are likely to be the ancestors to several human species, such as H. heidelbergensis and H. antecessor, with the former generally considered to have been the ancestor to Neanderthals and Denisovans, and sometimes also modern humans. Asian populations of H. erectus may be ancestral to H. floresiensis and possibly to H. luzonensis. A 2011 study suggested that it was H. habilis who reached West Asia from Africa, that early H. erectus developed there, and that early H. erectus would then have dispersed from West Asia to East Asia, Southeast Asia, back to Africa, and to Europe, eventually evolving into modern humans in Africa. Early teeth from Sangiran are bigger and more similar to those of basal Western H. erectus and H. habilis than to those of the derived Zhoukoudian H. erectus. Since its discovery in 1893, there has been a trend in palaeoanthropology of reducing the number of proposed species of Homo, to the point where H. erectus includes all early forms of Homo sufficiently derived from H. habilis and distinct from early H. heidelbergensis. Due to such a wide range of variation, it has been suggested that the ancient H. rudolfensis and H. habilis should be considered early varieties of H. erectus. The primitive H. e. georgicus from Dmanisi, Georgia has the smallest brain capacity of any known Pleistocene hominin, and its inclusion in the species would greatly expand the range of variation of H. erectus to perhaps include species as H. rudolfensis, H. gautengensis, H. ergaster, and perhaps H. habilis. Based on supposed derived characteristics, the 120 ka Javan H. e. soloensis has been proposed to have speciated from H. erectus, as H. soloensis, but this has been challenged because most of the basic cranial features are maintained. In a wider sense, H. erectus had mostly been replaced by H. heidelbergensis by about 300 kya years ago, with possible late survival of H. erectus soloensis in Java an estimated 117-108kya. African H. erectus candidates Homo ergaster Homo naledi Eurasian H. erectus candidates: Homo antecessor Homo heidelbergensis Homo cepranensis Homo floresiensis Homo sapiens candidates Homo neanderthalensis Denisovans Homo rhodesiensis Homo heidelbergensis Homo sapiens idaltu the Narmada fossil, discovered in 1982 in Madhya Pradesh, India, was at first suggested as H. erectus but later recognized as H. sapiens.