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Homo erectus roamed the earth between 1.8 million to 250,000 years ago (Noble; Davidson, 1996). One of the first fossil finds
of Homo erectus was the "java man" found near Trinil in Java in the year 1891 by Eugene Dubois. The find consisted
of a few teeth, a thick, flat skullcap and a thighbone that was found about twelve meters away from the other parts found
(Theunissen, 1989). Since the first breakthrough there have been many more Homo erectus bones found all over the world. One
of the largest Homo erectus fossil sites to date is found to the southwest of Beijing about thirty miles away in a town called
Zhoukoudian. Found at this site were the fossil remains of about 45 Homo erectus, many of which were women and children, along
with thousands of stone tools as well as animal bones. These bones are thought to be the remains of their meals which shows
they hunted animals for their food. There is also evidence of early hearths for fire which may mean they cooked their food
(Noel; Ciochon, 2001).
Homo erectus Stood about as tall as a modern human and fossils show that they also started forming the external nose
and a more barrel shaped chest as seen in Homo sapiens. Homo erectus also had a larger brow compared to Homo Sapiens and larger
cheek bones and when they are combined show larger jaw muscles. The brow ridge attached to the jaw muscles shows that although
Homo erectus may have cooked their food, they still had to chew there food quite strongly before they could swallow it. Homo
erectus also had a lack of a chin, a very thick cranial wall, and a low, broad and elongated skull. It is also thought that
Homo Erectus walked as well, if not better, than Homo sapiens by the way their hip bones are formed compared to one another.
We can also see what type of foods they ate by the wearing on their teeth. In the case of Homo erectus we can see that not
only did they eat meat but also some plants and roots. It is possible to discern what they ate by the scrape marks left in
their teeth by the grit that was on the unwashed plant material they ate (McQueen, 2004).
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