Long before other human subspecies like the Neanderthals, Denisovans and homo sapiens came the homo erectus, the first real example of a human species. Although homo erectus could be split into multiple subspecies categories due to the length of their existence it’s not incorrect to refer to them all simply as homo erectus, so for ease in this video, we will be referring to the species as a whole under the homo erectus umbrella. 1.9 million years ago the earth was in the Pleistocene period and the first homo species was born – the homo erectus, which is Latin for upright man. Homo erectus is the longest surviving relative of the modern-day human, having managed to live for approximately 1.5 million years. To compare, homo sapiens have only been around for about 400,000 years so far.