Describe homo erectus’s cranial and postcranial anatomical characteristics. how is this species significantly different from earlier hominids, and how did these characteristics increase the success of this species over that of their ancestors? a new member of our genus was discovered a few years ago. what is this new species? what are some of its features? what can you tell about it? where should it fall in our family tree? do you think that it should be part of the genus homo? why or why not

H. erectus had a larger brain than earlier Homo, average about 900cm3. This can be misleading due to the actual age of the specimen. H. erectus was physically larger in body size and the cranial capacity is in proportion to this larger overall size. Adults were over 100 lbs. with average height of about 5 ft. 6 in. Males were larger than females. The 1984 discovery from Nariokotome (Walker and Leakey 1993) of a male adolescent shows if he had lived to be adult his height would be over 6 ft. (Walker 1993). There was an increase in robustness which continued thru archaic H. sapiens until more gracile H. sapiens appeared.
Cranium had a projecting nuchal torus at the rear for neck muscle attachment which is distinctive. Heavy cranial bone with little forehead. Low brow ridges. Cranium is larger at the base than previous or later Homo.

H. erectus is very interesting and you can spend many hours learning of them and their culture.