直立人
"Homo erectus" occupation of Eastern Asia was an established idea well before the discovery of "Homo erectus nankinensis". Nanjing man is one of several middle Pleistocene dated "Homo erectus" fossil finds in eastern China, the most well known of which is Peking man. However dating the Nanjing man fossils between 580,000 YA and 620,000 YA pushed the estimate for "Homo erectus" colonisation of eastern Asia almost 270,000 years earlier.