Top 7 Extinct Human Species

This space rock we call Earth has been around for over 4.6 billion years. During all those eons, thousands, maybe millions of different species had gone extinct, including some of our cousins and direct ancestors like the “working man” (Homo ergaster) and “handy man” (Homo habilis), to name a couple. You may not know that the first modern humans (Homo sapiens) appeared between 400,000 and 250,000 years ago. At that time we didn’t have much competition, only some Neanderthals here and there, which probably helped us survive and develop our cognitive skills instead of using brute force on everything.

Anyway, none of the other humans from the Homo genus survived this arduous journey, leaving the Homo sapiens in charge of the planet. So here are top 7 extinct human species.

1. Homo georgicus
This “link species” between Homo habilis and Homo erectus was found Georgia in 1999 and is believed to be at least 1.8 million years old. Their skulls were quite tiny, but who needs brains when you got brawn! These homies settled in Europe around 800,000 years ago.

2. Homo ergaster (“working man”)
Let’s travel to South-East Africa now, 1.9-1.4 million years BC. The “working man” was a lot like H. erectus, but with some distinct differences in the skull structure and the brain size. They used stone axes and probably figured out how to make fire long before the others.

3. Homo rudolfensis
In 2007 a 1.9 million-year-old skull washed ashore near Lake Rudolf in Kenya. Only a single remnant of this species has been found so far, and according to the scientists it was more of a smart ape than a human.