how did the homo erectus survive
View full size image. Compared with modern Homo sapiens, which have only been around for the last 200,000 years, Homo erectus, or upright man, had a long reign. The ancient ancestor of modern humans lived from 2 million years ago till about 100,000 years ago, possibly even 50,000 years ago.omo erectus, an ancestor to modern humans, arose at least 1.8 million years ago. Around that time in the fossil record, archaeologists see big shifts in brain size and body size in ancient hominins.