Human Origins—Explorations and Discussions in Anthropology, Biology, Archaeology, and Geology discussion

This is the folder topic for discussions, journal articles, and news items associated with the species Homo erectus.

As a solid starting point, I am attaching the citation and link to a superbly written article by Susan Anton entitled, "Natural History of Homo erectus".

Anton, Susan C. (2003) Natural History of Homo erectus Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 46:126-170 http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/anthro/p...

To say that I am interested in Homo erectus is probably a mild understatement. It is simply astounding that this hominin species occupied much of Eurasia for something approaching 1.7 million years, and may not have become extinct until as recently as 30,000 years ago! I am very interested in learning more about what seems to have made this species of human so very successful. Toward this end, I very much recommend not only the Anton paper referenced above, but the detailed description, taxonomy, and historical perspective provided in Ian Tattersall's superb book, The Fossil Trail: How We Know What We Think We Know about Human Evolution. Additionally, I was just able to find and acquire the classic analysis by G. Philip Rightmire, The Evolution of Homo Erectus: Comparative Anatomical Studies of an Extinct Human Species; which I'm very much looking forward to reading and studying.

One of the difficulties of learning about Homo erectus is keeping up what this hominin is called. When I first studied paleoanthropology years ago, H. erectus was the species that evolved in Africa, possibly from H. habilis, later migrated out of Africa and through Eurasia, eventually going extinct in Asia and evolving into Neanderthals in Europe. Meanwhile, the same species in Africa evolved in H. sapiens.

Now, as I understand it, the African progenitor is called H. ergaster, only the Asian migrant is H. erectus, the European descendant of H. ergaster that gave rise to Neanderthals now being H. heidelbergensis. Next week, the terminology may change again...

Diana wrote: "One of the difficulties of learning about Homo erectus is keeping up what this hominin is called. When I first studied paleoanthropology years ago, H. erectus was the species that evolved in Afric..."

You're right. The field is changing fast and your description of the new family tree is on the money, at least based on the current findings. But new information keeps coming out. It's now generally agreed that there were at least 27 human species that evolved over the past 7 million years. Homo erectus was one (although it's more likely that Homo erectus really represents several species). And there is now smolking gun evidence that some version of Homo erectus was around and came into direct contact with Homo sapiens in Asia as recent;y as 25,000 years ago, for more recently than thought even a few years ago. Ten there's the story of Homo floresiensis, the Red Deer Cave People and the Denisovans of siberia, who not only mated with Neanderthals, but with us., as did Neanderthals (new genetic evidence provides proof for these remarkable findings).

I learned all of this when I was researching my latest book,Last Ape Standing: The Seven-Million-Year Story of How and Why We Survived. It comes out January 29th this month. You might find it interesting. (I'm not saying this just to self-promote.) If you do read it, I'd love to know what you think of it. You can drop me a note through Goodreads or through my website www.chipwalter.com.