This video by Stephan Milo explains reasons why Homo Erectus are the first hominins that can be called human, due to their mastery of the use of fire and tools and the changes that came about as a result.

Following are points from the video:

— The oldest known fossil of Homo Erectus is 1.9 million years old, found in Kenya, and another fossil was found in the Republic of Georgia from 1.8 million years ago.

— They had larger bodies, smaller teeth, smaller jaws, and larger brains than previous hominins.  Early Homo Erectus had smaller brains that were about the size of a Chimpanzee’s, and later ones found living a half a million years later in Indonesia had brains that were almost three times as large, being almost the size of a modern human brain.

— They were the first hominin that had the ability to run on two feet due to the shape of their pelvis being similar to modern humans.

— They were the first mostly hairless hominins, and they lived in a manner that is much closer to modern humans than previous primates.

— Tools and technology they left behind shows that they were very intelligent, but it is not known if they used language.

— Their most significant advancement was the use of fire, which allowed them to cook their food, giving them a tremendous energy boost and thus theoretically it led to the growth of their brain sizes; however the earliest definitive evidence of the use of fire is only 780 thousand years old, but newer evidence suggests its use as early as 1.5 million years ago.

— It is speculated that hominids could have even initially cooked food or bathed in naturally occurring hot springs 1.7 million years ago, before the discovery of fire.

— Hominins and stone tools have been found in the Philippines from 700,000 years ago, showing that they knew how to travel over water to reach the islands.

— The evolution of Homo Erectus coincides with the appearance of new types of more advanced stone tools in the archeological record, which demonstrates creative thinking that is similar to modern humans.  They also created spears with “barbed”-type bone points that were very advanced.

— A shell was found in Java from 500 thousand years ago that has patterns of lines scratched onto it, which was likely was a form of artistic expression.

— The last evidence of Homo Erectus was found from 117 thousand years ago, however they may have left behind populations on isolated islands that evolved into other hominins such as Homo Floresienis.

— Some paleontologists believe that humans evolved due to gene flow happening over the entire expanse of the domain of Homo Erectus on three continents, which is known as the “Multiregional Hypothesis,” however the evidence shows that humans are predominantly an African species nonetheless.

— Not many fossils are known that date from 800 thousand to 500 thousand years ago, so there are a lot of gaps in the fossil record which is known as “The Muddle in the Middle.”