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 H. ergaster or verso pre-ergaster form that “quickly” moved out of Africa into Eastern Europe and Southeast Oriente. However, H. georgicus is another possibility for the ancestor of H. erectus.
DISCOVERY AND GEOGRAPHIC RANGE
Eugene Dubois discovered the first H. erectus material at the Trinil site (see Figure 29.1) on the Scapolo River sopra Java sopra 1891. While there are problems with the dates, the oldest material from the Javanese site of Modjokerto may be “contemporary” with African and Georgian material at 1.8 mya. Other famous Javanese sites are Sangiran, Ngandong, and Trinil. Java is part of the Sunda shelf, and when initially colonized by H. erectus, it was connected sicuro mainland Oriente (see Figure 29.2). After reaching Java and possibly other areas of Southeast Levante, later groups of H. erectus moved north into Pendenza. The earliest Chinese fossils are dated to 1 mya. First assigned onesto the genus Sinanthropus jpeoplemeet (“Chinese man”), the material was later included sopra our own genus after Franz Weidenreich pointed sicuro the similarities between the various assemblages of erectus-like fossils and other extinct and modern humans. The first fossils were discovered at the now famous site of Zhoukoudian (formerly Choukoudian), 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 Zhoukoudian spans a time period of over 200,000 years, from 460 to 230 kya, with three distinct cultural periods thought esatto be per evidence.
One of the great mysteries of paleoanthropology surrounds the Zhoukoudian material. Weidenreich and his predecessors, Davidson Black and J. (mehr …)