The History of Our Tribe Hominini Textbook Part IV Pleistocene Epoch Chapter 29 Homo erectus

29 . Homo erectus Homo erectus ( human I upright ) 53 Figure Drawing of ' material . by 120 is in the public domain . SITES Java , China , and sites in , and Lantian counties India Turkey 173 PEOPLE While there are many people associated with Home erectus , I have listed a few of the historic names . Java Eugene China Gunnar , Black , Franz INTRODUCTION Homo erectus is the genus and species combination that was retained for all mainland Asian , Taiwanese , and Javanese fossil material . PHYLOGENY The most popularly held notion is that Homo erectus is derived from or a form that quickly moved out of Africa into Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia . However , is another for the ancestor of erectus . DISCOVERY AND GEOGRAPHIC RANGE Eugene discovered the first erectus material at the site ( see Figure ) on the Solo River in Java in 1891 . While there are problems with the dates , the oldest material from the Javanese site of may be contemporary with African and Georgian material at . Other famous Javanese sites are , and . Java is part of the shelf , and when initially colonized by erectus , it was connected to mainland Asia ( see Figure ) After reaching Java and possibly other areas of Southeast Asia , later groups of erectus moved north into China . The earliest Chinese fossils are dated to . First assigned to the genus ( Chinese man ) the material was later included in our own genus after Franz pointed to the similarities between the various of fossils and other extinct and modern humans . The first fossils were discovered at the now famous site of ( formerly ) near Beijing ( formerly Peking and hence the term , Peking Man ) The local people called them dragon bones and were using them for medicinal purposes . Material from spans a time period of over years , from 460 to 230 kya , with three distinct cultural periods thought to be in evidence . One of the great mysteries of paleoanthropology surrounds the material . and his predecessors , Black and Gunnar , had amassed an unprecedented amount of fossil material from the site . Due to the imminent Japanese invasion , packed up the fossil material in 1941 with the intent of having it shipped to the United States . However , the material disappeared , and all that remains are notes , drawings , and some casts of the original fossils . Other Chinese sites are found in the counties of Lantian , and . A new discovery on the island of has been linked to erectus , with the closest resemblance to the remains ( Chang 174 The History of Our Tribe

et al . 2015 ) Finally , the site in India has been a topic of debate for a long time but it has now been decided , at least by a portion of the paleoanthropological community , as being Homo erectus . Sumatra lava ' Bum ! Islands Wallace Line 33 Weber , Line mainland extensions by lower sea levels during the ice ages Figure ( northwest of the Wallace Line ) Map of by is licensed under . PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS While many of the physical characteristics of erectus are similar to , the Asian species is unique in a number of ways . Asian forms exhibit a thickening along the sagittal suture , termed a sagittal keel . The keel gives the skull a pentagonal shape in . It is unknown whether the keel served a function . Their incisors were shoveled , an adaptation that increases the stress resistance of teeth , especially when using them as tools . The molar enamel was characterized by a unique wrinkling pattern . Both of those dental characteristics are found in modern people of Asia and Asian ancestry and are interpreted by some scholars as evidence of regional continuity in other words , there was a gradual evolution from forms through archaic human populations and into modern populations in multiple areas via gene flow . 29 . Homo erectus 175

Figure Home erectus by Taylor . Review of Derived Characteristics Sagittal keel . Shoveled incisors . Wrinkled . ENVIRONMENT AND WAY OF LIFE Javanese sites in the early would have been conducive to animals like Homo erectus . The area was part of the land bridge that was exposed beginning , making it accessible by land . Java was a mix of environments consisting of a variety of forest types , freshwater lakes and rivers , brackish marshes , and grasslands ( Blain 2012 ) At the time of erectus occupation , the site of , China , was in a transitional zone between temperate steppe and boreal forest . It would thus have been seasonally cold and would likely only have been habitable during the warmer months . 176 The History of Our Tribe

Figure Homo Peking Man by Taylor . Culturally and technologically , Asian erectus are thought to have been somewhat similar to African . One of the key differences is the fact that the industry never made it to Asia . The earliest inhabitants of Asia carried with them the tool tradition , but the inventors of the tion apparently never followed . On maps , the Line ( see Figure ) the border between the two tool traditions during the . It has been suggested that bamboo would have been a able material for making tools , which could explain the paucity of stone tools found . Populations of erectus survived in Asia for much of the Epoch . Recent of the Javanese site of has yielded dates as recent as kya . Even more surprising is the recent of dwarfed on the island of Flores , termed , that have been dated to 18 kya . is thought to be descended from a population of erectus that adapted to limited island resources by becoming dwarfed in size . 29 . Homo erectus 177

Figure Line color change delineation from Eastern Europe to northeast India . Extension by Alvarez is in the public 178 The History of Our Tribe