When I was explaining the human family tree I was relying on outdated information. I looked for family tree charts and this one was the clearest. According to this one, homo erectus was not the common ancestor to neanderthals and us, but homo ergaster was the common ancestor to erectus and, via heidelbergensis, eventually to neanderthals and us. Keep in mind that a few of these relationships are not well established and the diagram will likely be adjusted again according to further research.
Still, it doesn't do justice to the fact that homo erectus was spread out throughout the world for almost 2 million years, while we have been around for just 150 to 200 thousand years. Seems hard to believe that they simply died out without leaving some unique genes behind.
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