Homo erectus

Where Lived:

Northern, Eastern, and Southern Africa;

Western Asia (Dmanisi, Republic of Georgia);

East Asia (China and Indonesia)

When Lived:

Between about 1.89 million and 70,000 years ago

Eugène Dubois, a Dutch surgeon, first found a Homo erectus (Trinil 2) in Indonesia in 1891. In 1894, DuBois named the species Pithecanthropus erectus, or ‘erect ape-man.’ No hyman fossils were discovered yet in Africa at that time and erectus was the most primitive and small brained specie of all known early human species. One of the first fossil discoveries from Java (beginning in the 1890s) and China (‘Peking Man’, beginning in the 1920s) are the classic examples of Homo erectus species. They are most likely the first species to have expanded beyond Africa, Homo erectus shows high variability, spread over two continents (we don’t know for sure if they reached Europe), and possibly the longest lived early human species - about nine times as long as our own species, Homo sapiens, has been around. Homo erectus fossils were discovered in the Middle Awash region of the Afar Rift in eastern Ethiopia, where from half Ma to more than six Ma human ancestor fossils were found.

Richard Erskine Frere Leakey, second son of Louis and Mary, was born on December 19, 1944. He participated in his parent’s field expeditions from an early age and was therefore well-placed to inherit their legacy. Together with a team from the NMK, Richard led the first expedition to Koobi Fora in 1968. Between 1968 and 1989 he coordinated the NMK field expeditions to the eastern and western shores of Lake Turkana. With the team of talented and experienced fossil hunters led by Mr. Kamoya Kimeu, many important finds were made, including early stone age tools dating to around 1.9 million years old, evidence of early members of the genus Homo, including skulls of Homo habilis and Homo erectus, and remains of robust australopithecines A. boisei and A.aethiopicus. The extraordinary discovery of the nearly complete1.6 million year old skeleton of the “Nariokotome Boy” (or“Turkana Boy”), a Homo erectus youth, was undoubtedly the most important. After Dr. Leakey was appointed the head of the Kenya Wildlife Services KWS in 1989, he was no longer able to continue with fieldwork, though he remains interested in paleoanthropology. Dr. Leakey’s political career culminated in 1999 when then-president Moi appointed him head of Kenya’s Civil Service and of a so-called “Dream Team” of technocrats assembled from various fields and backgrounds to tackle management, corruption, and reorganization issues within the Kenyan government. He stepped down from this position in 2001, announcing at that time that he was retiring from politics.