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How large was the average Homo erectus brain compared with a modern human brain?

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Side-view illustration of a Homo erectus individual, depicted with a robust, upright body covered in hair, walking with one arm bent. A scale bar beside the figure shows measurements in inches and centimeters. — Homo erectus Artist's rendering of *Homo erectus*, which lived from approximately 1,700,000 to 200,000 years ago.

The average endocranial capacity of Homo erectus is generally less than 1,000 cubic cm (61 cubic inches), which is distinctly smaller than that of modern Homo sapiens. In comparison, the average endocranial capacity of modern humans is approximately 1,350 cubic cm, though the range for recent humans typically spans from 1,000 to 2,000 cubic cm.1

Brain size in Homo erectus varied by population and region. For instance, fossil examples of Javanese Homo erectus have an average capacity of about 930 cubic cm, while those from the Chinese populations (such as Peking man) average approximately 1,029 cubic cm. While the upper estimates for Homo erectus brain capacity—reaching up to 1,200 cubic cm—can overlap with the lower values found in modern humans, the species as a whole possessed a smaller average brain size than Homo sapiens.12