Is it true that man may have inhabited Europe some 1.2 million years ago. as stated in a recent report?

Question

If man was around some 1.2 million years ago (in Europe and elsewhere, is it possible to speculate how many people have lived and died in this planet between that time and now? What would be a good "guesstimate"?

Answer 1

What sort of man? 1.2 million is a little high and outside for Sapiens, even Neanderthals. Erectus maybe?

Answer 2

There is something wrong with the 1.2 million years. If it were true than we would have a serious population problem on our hands. There would be people that it would be impossible to not touch someone. If mankind went through a bottleneck, then there would mountains of skulls all over the world. I'm sorry, there is no way man has been here for 1.2 million years.

Answer 3

roughly half the people who have ever lived on the earth are alive today. population explosion....

Answer 4

Yes, Homo antecessor, who pre-dated not only neanderthals, but also Homo heidelbergensis!

He may have come from H. erectus, who has been found "out of Africa", as early as 1.8 mya (Georgia, southern Russia)...

Answer 5

Maybe man was here long before that as well but no physical evidence has yet been found! Maybe mankind originated on the North American continent when the equator was just below what is now the arctic circle! Maybe there really is another species of man but they journeyed out to the stars and abandoned the Earth! Perhaps they were so distinctively different from our species that they had no choice but to leave! Possibly they were able to endure high radiation and environments that would kill any other life form. What if their physical make up enabled them to see far into the future with extreme accuracy and they knew it wasn't going to work with us! There are so many probable and possible branches that we'll never even imagine what truly is out there now!