Human evolution began millions of years ago as hominins diverged from chimpanzees. Early hominins like Australopithecus eventually gave rise to the genus Homo, including Homo erectus who were the first hominins to expand outside of Africa around 1.8 million years ago. Modern humans, Homo sapiens, evolved in Africa around 200,000 years ago and began expanding out of Africa around 70,000 years ago, gradually replacing earlier human species.