Short answers, pulled from the story.
Homo erectus is an extinct species of archaic human that lived during the Pleistocene, spanning nearly 2 million years. It evolved in Africa from a population of Homo habilis and survived until at least 108,000 to 117,000 years ago in Southeast Asia.
Dutch scientist Eugène Dubois discovered the species at the Trinil site in Java, Indonesia, finding a skullcap and molar in 1891 and a femur in 1892. He named the species Pithecanthropus erectus in 1893, a name later reclassified as Homo erectus.
Homo erectus is credited as the first human species to wield fire, with the earliest claimed site being Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa at 1.7 million years ago. However, fire does not appear consistently in the archaeological record until 300,000 to 400,000 years ago, suggesting the species may have scavenged fire opportunistically rather than producing it reliably.
H. erectus left Africa very soon after evolving, with fossils appearing in Georgia between 1.78 and 1.85 million years ago, in Indonesia at 1.6 to 1.8 million years ago, and in China at around 1.77 million years ago. Paleoanthropologists link the dispersal to the evolution of bipedalism, improved technology, and a shift toward a carnivorous diet, aided by expanding savannas.
Homo erectus invented the Acheulean stone tool industry, credited at latest to 1.95 million years ago, most famously producing large handaxes. The species also continued manufacturing earlier Oldowan-style choppers and produced tools from shells at the Sangiran and Trinil sites in Indonesia.
Some populations of H. erectus were ancestors of H. heidelbergensis, which is generally regarded as the last common ancestor of modern humans, Neanderthals, and Denisovans. H. erectus is therefore an indirect ancestor of all living people, though it is classified as a paraphyletic group because it does not include all of the descendants of its own last common ancestor.