Upright man, an extinct form of Homo sapiens who evolved one million years ago, just before Neanderthal Man. This species had a larger brain and was bigger than Homo habilis, with a muscular stocky body and heavy face with thick brow bones. It is thought that Homo erectus made Acheulian stone artifacts and spread out around Africa. He gradually evolved into archaic Homo sapiens about 500,000 years ago. The best known discoveries are from Far East (Java, Choukoutien, Yuanmou), but skeletal remains have been found in East Africa (Olduvai), in North Africa (Ternifine, Sidi Abderrahman) and in Europe (Mauer Jaw, Vértesszöllös). At Choukoutien there was proof that he knew the use of fire. This ancestor of modern humans evolved from Australopithecus, and his brain was about two-thirds the size of contemporary humans'.