Recent discussion of a different article about the same thing: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21834113" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21834113</a>
"Homo erectus, one of modern humans’ direct ancestors, was a wandering bunch. [...] But about 400,000 years ago, Homo erectus essentially vanished."<p>So are they our direct ancestors, or have they vanished? Both can't be true.