When (millions of years ago) and where (geographic locations/sites) fossils of Homo erectus have been found

Homo erectus, an extinct species of hominid, has a fossil record that spans from roughly 2 million to less than 100,000 years ago. The first Homo erectus fossils were discovered in Java, Indonesia, by Dutch physician Eugene Dubois in 1891. These fossils were dated to be about 700,000 years old, but later revisions have pushed the age back to roughly 1.2 million years.

In 1929, the first African Homo erectus fossil was found at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. This specimen, known as OH 9, is dated to about 1.2 million years ago. However, the most famous Homo erectus site in Africa is probably Koobi Fora in Kenya, where numerous fossils have been found dating between 1.7 and 1.2 million years ago.

In 1960, the first Homo erectus fossils in China were discovered at Zhoukoudian near Beijing. These fossils, known as Peking Man, are between 780,000 and 400,000 years old. Other significant Homo erectus finds have been made in Georgia (Dmanisi site, 1.85 million years old), and in Indonesia (Sangiran and Trinil sites, 1.6 to 1 million years old).

In summary, Homo erectus fossils have been found in a variety of locations across Africa, Europe, and Asia, and they span a significant portion of the Pleistocene epoch, from about 2 million to less than 100,000 years ago.