Earliest humans ranged from short to tall body size

London: Scientists have found evidence that contradicts the dominant theory of our evolution - that our genus, Homo, evolved from small bodied early humans to become the taller, heavier and longer legged Homo erectus that was able to migrate beyond Africa and colonise Eurasia. The new study says the main increase in body size occurred tens of thousands of years after Homo erectus left Africa.

Basically every textbook on human evolution gives the perspective that one lineage of human’s evolved larger bodies before spreading beyond Africa. The study is the first in 20 years to compare the body size of the humans who shared the earth with mammoths and sabre-toothed cats between 2.5 and 1.5 million years ago.