(e) Homo Erectus: Homo erectus evolved from homo habilis around 1.7 millions years ago in Pleistocene. He was 1.5-1.8 meter tall and had erect posture. He was capable of making fine quality stone and bone tools, hunted big games and knew use of fire. The cranial capacity was 800-1300 cm3. He was omnivorous and probably ate meat. By 150,000 year ago, homo erectus migrated to asia, and Europe. The fossile were found in java, peking in china and Heidelberg in germany, and these fossils were termed as Java-ape man (H.erectus erectus), Peking man (H.erectus pekinensis) and Heidelberg-Man (H. erectus heidelbergensis).

(f) Homo Neanderthalensis: These early men were inhabitated in sothern Europe and central asia during Pleistocene about 35000-100,000 years ago. He was 1.5-1.66 meter erect posture, strong shoulders and arms, powerful hands and large skull with thick bones (Figure 10.5). The cranial capacity was 1300-1600cm3, almost equal to the modern man. They have flat crainium, sloping forehead, thin large orbits, heavy brow ridges, protruding jaws, strongs mandibles and no chin. These were known to live in cave or probably known to build their own hut-like shelters. There are reports for them being able to made flint flake tools, skilled tools, used animal hides as clothing, knew the use of fire and perform rituals such as buried their dead. They were omnivorous and had not been doing agriculture or animal domestication. They were known to have migratory habits in response to climatatic changes and as a result they were spread o South Asia and Africa. 

  Figure 10.5 : Skulls of early and modern men.