Chronology of Man?

Question

What were some innovations of the Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus, Homo Sapiens, Neanderthals,and Cro-Magnon ?

Answer 1

Homo Habilis as it name (Handy Man) infers was one of the first to construct tools for use rather than just using what was at hand (pun not intended)

Homo Erectus was the real go getter in that he was both a tool user and made regular use of fire. He also has the distinction of moving out of Africa to almost every corner of the planet.

Homo Sapiens (and Cro Magnon) really took the efforts of Homo Erectus and began to make a impact on the planet in the sense that he began to settle semi permanent homes, rudimentary calenders and refined tools, domestication of animals began with him and  advanced tools such as bows and arrows and fishing nets were pioneered by these two

groups. Also art was "invented" by them in the form of cave drawings and ornamental goods that serve no practical purpose. There is even evidence that these peoples may be responsible for the megaliths of Europe.

Neanderthal man was the "Survivorman" of human species. He pioneered living in Europe and while his technology wasn't as advanced as Sapiens or Cro Magnon he did however have a spiritual side. Neanderthals dug permanent graves for their dead and evidence in those graves shows they had funeral rights for them. They also built cairns using the skulls of cave bears which seemed to have religious significance to them.

Answer 2

While there could be a lot of debate about what you are or are not including as man, I'm going to assume you want to basically include key examplar species from the genus Homo leading up to modern Homo sapiens sapiens.  I'm also assuming that by "innovations," you're talking about technological developments and material culture, not biological developments which are apart from any creative and inventive spirit of the species.

Homo Habilis (and what most would argue are its contemporary and larger species Homo Rudolfensis) is most commonly thought to mark the beginning of the earliest recognized stone tool industry, the Oldowan.  

(There is also some reason to think that Paranthropus and the robust Australopithicenes might have also had some part of this industry, but they're not Homo.)

Apart from the stone tools, there is a lot of controversy and uncertainty about the technology and culture of Homo habilis.  They may have had homebases, stone caches, or organized settlements, but we simply have not been able to interpret the material record with enough clarity to settle between or among competing hypotheses.

Homo erectus (known as Homo ergaster in Africa, to oversimplify) is most connected to the Acheulean tool industry, which is more refined than the Oldowan and is often characterized by hand axes.  They may also have had mastery of cooking fires, though this is still a much argued idea.

With the dawn of Homo sapiens, we see a dramatic increase in tool types and industries, a lot more experimentation, and rapid increase in technological developments, eventually including metallurgy and other more advanced technologies.

Homo neanderthalensis (no longer considered homo sapiens neanderthalensis) is not really part of our lineage.  Accruing evidence from archaeology and biological anthropology has long suggested this to many scholars, and DNA evidence recently has seemed to settle this forever. Nevertheless, their technology (Mousterian stone tools) was on a similar level as their contemporary Homo sapiens, though they developed less rapdily, did not experience a flouresence of diverse types, and seem to have only picked up symbolic innovations by copying Homo sapiens or learning from them through contact.

Cro-Magnon isn't considered a species anymore by most; it's just a particular area of Upper Paleolithic Homo sapiens.