brief interval and is fairly localized in its spatial distribution.
Homo erectus, in contrast though, can be documented over a longer time interval and a greater geographic area. Over a period of more than a million years, H. erectus drifted north out of Africa towards Europe, before heading eastward.
The hominid traveled mainly because it could. It had efficient bipedal locomotion. Its large brain also gave it an improved capacity for exploiting its environment. It developed advanced speech, the control of fire, and the ability to cook food. It was also able to make more advanced stone tools and weapons. H. erectus' increased hunting and foraging skills enabled it to move into more marginal ecological niches. As populations in any one area expanded, thus making the competition for resources intolerable, members of the species would just move on.
Homo erectus evidence has been found in East, South, and North Africa, as well as in Asia and India. These migrations began before one million years ago, with populations becoming established in the different areas by the early Pleistocene. Furthermore, the remains of stone tools indicate that H. erectus also inhabited parts of Europe. Such northerly migrations could have occurred during warm periods when the glaciers were at an ebb.
It wasn't until about 300,000 years ago, late in the Middle Pleistocene, that populations of Homo erectus began to disappear. They gave way to a new and more advanced species, Homo sapiens. H. sapiens is characterized by further enlargement of the brain; in fact, with the appearance of the Neandertal variety of Homo sapiens 200,000 years ago, brain size and organization had just about attained modern dimensions. During the 100,000 years of Neandertal existence, hominids spread across all of Europe, the Middle East, and western and central Asia. In addition, archaic Homo sapiens migrated as far as China and South Africa.
This...