The Humans That Built Houses 1,750,000 Years Before Us

It may come as a surprise, but the first human species to spread throughout the world is in fact not us, Homo Sapiens, but instead a species of human now known as Homo Erectus. And the crazy thing is, that's only a small list of "firsts" that the Homo Erectus accomplished...

If you want more ExtinctZoo 🦖:

0:00 Intro
2:33 Discovery (Asian Origin Hypothesis)
3:56 Classification & Naming
4:31 Similarities and Differences With Modern Humans
5:32 Range & Habitat
6:02 Evolution
7:10 The First Human Apex Predator
7:36 What Animals It Hunted
8:17 Adaptations For Hunting Giant Animals
9:57 Weapons And Technology
11:33 Could It Throw Straight?
11:50 Intelligence and Cooperation
12:51 Reliance on Megafauna
13:27 Primitive Healthcare
14:22 FIRE
16:04 The First Ever Language
17:21 Buildings From 1.7 Million Years Ago
18:31 Clothing
18:57 Ahoy! The First Sailors
20:10 The Longest Surviving Human Species
21:05 Why Did They Go Extinct?
21:56 Australopithecus

Copyright Disclaimer under Section 107 of the copyright act 1976, allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favour of fair use.

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

[peterstromboli]

Immagine being there for the first boat ever to cast off... "GRUG! LOOK AT THIS, IT CAN FLOAT! HOP ON HOMIES WE GOIN SOMEWHERE"

[latheofheaven]

It's a bit mind-blowing to me that Homo Erectus was around with its home-building and tool-making technology for about 1.75 million years. All that history, and we'll never know anything more than a minuscule fraction of the broadest outlines.

[FarmerDrew]

Me, pulling up in my sled pulled by dogs
"Get in losers, we're making cave art in Colombia"

[Kargoneth]

A time machine that would allow us to see into the past without affecting it would be useful.

[alinaanto]

One thing is clear: We don’t agree on how they actually looked.

All jokes aside, thank you for an insightful documentary with great narration and great imagery

[drbigmdftnu]

Absolutely most successful human species, not only by longevity, but by the advancements they made (sapiens excluded) Using and making fire, clothes, advanced weaponry and tools, caring for others for extended periods...remarkable people.

[killgazmotron]

Ive always felt theres a deep biological connection in our brains between how we portray the villians in slasher movies,
And how it is we hunt. The similarity is eerie if you think about it.
The killer never runs. hes a walking, steady pace, never tiring brute with a sharp implement. You run away from him, he only walks, so you MUST get away right?
wrong. Just when you think you can relax, here he is again. you can never escape. you can run a hundred times faster than him trying to save your life, But he still runs you down, and never even ran to begin
The victims in slasher movies are the legit experiences of our prey.

[daniell]

Knowing these lines of early humans lived so long and accomplished so much really boggles the mind. In a very real way, we stand on the shoulders of those who went before us, giving humanity an amazing legacy to live up to.

[theosnepenthes]

Nowadays people complain when they have to walk more than a block between escalators and elevators. Our ancestors were able to spread throughout the world, in between long dangerous swims or boat voyages, in every possible weather condition, entirely on foot! What heroes!

[nonyadamnbusiness]

The biggest problem I see with all these hypotheses is that whoever is coming up with them pretty obviously spends most of their time indoors. Like the idea that humans first captured naturally occurring fire rather than created it. Humans always gathered up dry grass for bedding. Apes do that. When humans started flaking stone tools is was inevitable that they would spark their dry grass bedding on fire. And this idea that physically modern vocal cords are required for speech. Apes talk to each other. My dogs talk to each other. I can tell by the way they bark what they're after. It's different for rat or snake or cat or possum. Solresol is a language with seven syllables. Southern Koisan uses five different clicks. It really doesn't require vocal cords to have a language.

[drds]

Hey man, I don't know if you'll see this or not but this is a really good video. I appreciate you and that you take the time to make videos like this.

[URProductions]

Homo Erectus is by far my favorite Homo name. This is purely a scientific opinion.

[jongkittae]

excellent! just in time for my most recent hyperfixation: human evolution 😂

[paleoph]

0:01
"...the homogenous, "

I see what you did there.

[danx]

Perfect timing, I was looking for something exactly like this. Started with dinosaurs, then pterosaurs, now homo. Love the history of our distant, yet closest relatives. A video about the earliest homo sapiens would nice (and other groups too, like heidelbergensis, habilis, neanderthalensis etc.).

[CeleriaRosencroix]

I would argue that a charitable and fair explanation for the disappearance of *Homo erectus* is as a result of isolated populations diversifying into other forms of *Homo:* namely, *Heidelberginsist->Neanderthalensis, Denisovans, Sapiens, and likely Floresiensis as well as Ludonensis.*

Sure, there were isolated populations of them that simply died out, but this is not representative of all of what seems to have been going on during the later parts of their presence in the ecosystem.

[greva]

I assume that Homo Erectus probably used logboats and rafts to paddle across open water, rather than anything as sophisticated as a sail? Either way, it was one hell of a feat.

[sharpiepenfinepoint]

It would make sense we built homes before fire.. Seeing how most animals build nests.. The complexity, on the other hand.. Brains

[Kargoneth]

@7:45 It is amazing how successful groups of predators can be with cooperative hunting tactics. Able to bring down much larger, stronger, and hardier prey than any one individual predator. Humans being pack hunters, tool users, and tool makers, were advantaged by physiology that also allowed them to become superb pursuit hunters.

[vidviewer]

Thanks this was an excellent doco and kept me interested all the way through