Fire Richard Wrangham's very interesting book Catching Fire explains the importance of fire extremely well. The author believes that fire came into general use at the start of the Homo erectus period. He may well be right. There is no current agreement on the timing of the first use of fire. This is probably because the only evidence on which estimates have been based has been of clear traces of fire at a site with other traces of biped occupation. Very few of these have survived until much later. But fire is central to the life of man and would have been to all those human predecessors which had mastered it. Evidence of increased meat-eating, evidence of the use of base camps, evidence of decreased tooth wear and evolution towards less powerful teeth and jaw muscles would all suggest the use of fire. See also the note on Base Camps.