Hunting for Java Man

[Minimalist]

From those good folks at the BBC.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/f ... 370573.stm

Java Man. The name sounds like a 1970s men's aftershave. One possibly not much used because the face, lovingly reconstructed by the palaeontologists, suggested he was no great shaver.

He also had small, deep-set eyes and an enormous jaw.

But Java Man was still a hero when he surfaced at the end of the 19th Century: Pithecanthropus erectus, an early contender for the title of missing link between the first upright hominids and modern humans.

[Rokcet Scientist]

What I found most remarkable in that story is the predecessor of Java Man (twice his age: 1,5 mio BP) in exactly the same spot: Meganthropus paleojavanicus. Of which I wasn't aware until now. Because this is yet another hominid that made it from Africa to Java! But much, much earlier than Java Man it seems...!
The capabilities of these early hominids never cease to amaze me.
Wait for HE in America! I know he was there!

http://www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Meganthropus

[Minimalist]

Or....... HE reached Java at 1.5 mya and "multi-regionalized" ( I think I just coined a new verb!) himself into Java man.

HE was at Dmanisi in Georgia at 1.8 MYA.

[Rokcet Scientist]

That's what I thought too – MP being Java Man's/HE's granddaddy – but from what I understand Meganthropus paleojavanicus is also considered a separate, dead-end homo strain by some, concurrent with HE. But distinct from it. Like HF was concurrent with HSS (but kicked the bucket for some unknown reason 11kya; though the concurrence with the end of the Würm is of course prime suspect).

[Minimalist]

but from what I understand Meganthropus paleojavanicus is also considered a separate, dead-end homo strain by some,

Yeah...but what does that matter. People think lots of silly stuff.

[Rokcet Scientist]

OK, then if Meganthropus paleojavanicus was the grandson of Dmanisi Man, they are 'only' 300,000 years and 15,000 miles apart, one would expect a hereditary likeness, wouldn't one? Let's find it. A close morphological examination and comparison is in order, imo.

[Minimalist]

300,000 years is a long time. Longer than HSS has been around.

[JSteen]

You guys make my head spin. Can you or anyone point to an online map/timeline of all the hominids found to date? Preferably with the various family tree theories colorcoded? : /

[Minimalist]

I don't know of any such chart, J. I don't think there is enough agreement about the subject to justify producing one. The entire field seems to change every six months. Last year, Homo Floriensis was not a "species" this year it is.

That would be a lot of charts to throw in the trash.

[Rokcet Scientist]

You guys make my head spin. Can you or anyone point to an online map/timeline of all the hominids found to date? Preferably with the various family tree theories colorcoded? : /

I don't know of any such chart, J. I don't think there is enough agreement about the subject to justify producing one. The entire field seems to change every six months. Last year, Homo Floriensis was not a "species" this year it is.

That would be a lot of charts to throw in the trash.

Here's a couple.
Of thousands of different interpretations.
And they all stink, of course.

[JSteen]

Hey, any chart that includes Fred Flintstone can't be all bad - thanks. : )

[Rokcet Scientist]

Here's a listing that may illuminate the human evolution:

10 million years BP: Speciation of gorillas.

7 million years BP: Speciation of chimpanzees. The last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees is Sahelanthropus tchadensis. The so-called “Millennium Man,” Orrorin tugenensis, is the earliest known human ancestor which post-dates this speciation.

3.7 million years BP: Australopithecus afarensis leaves footprints on a layer of volcanic ash in Laetoli, Kenya. These footprints indicate that the species was most likely bipedal.

3 million years BP: The evolution of the bipedal australopithecines in the African savannahs. Over the next million years this hominid species loses its body hair as it becomes fully bipedal.

2.5 million years BP: The genus Homo appears, evolving from australopithecines ancestors. The development of the Homo genus coincides with the appearance of tools in the fossil record.

1.8 million years BP: The evolution of Homo erectus, in Africa. This species resembles modern humans and is thought to be an ancestor.

1.5 million years BP: Human ancestors began to use fire as a tool.

700 thousand years ago: A common genetic ancestor of Neanderthals and humans is thought to have lived at this time.

355 thousand years ago: Homo heidelbergensis, common ancestor of humans and Neanderthals, leaves footprints in a layer of volcanic ash in Italy. The species was similar to Homo erectus, but had a larger brain-case.

195 thousand years ago: Omo I and Omo II, two fossil specimens discovered in Ethiopia, lived at this time. They are the earliest discovered fossil evidence for ancient Homo sapiens.

160 thousand years ago: Homo sapiens living in Ethiopia near the Awash River are known to have practiced mortuary rituals.

150 thousand years ago: The woman known as “Mitochondrial Eve” lived at this time, in East Africa. This fossil is the most recent common ancestor of human females.

70 thousand years ago: The development of genes associated with speech. The development of “behavioral modernity,” a set of behaviors and traits associated with modern humans. At around this time, the development of modern human culture began to accelerate rapidly.

60 thousand years ago: The “Y Chromosomal Adam” lived in Africa. This fossil is the most recent common ancestor of human males.

50 thousand years ago: Humans begin to migrate to South Asia.

40 thousand years ago: Humans begin migrating to Europe and Australia.

25 thousand years ago: The Neanderthals die out.

12 thousand years ago: With the extinction of Homo floresiensis, Homo sapiens becomes the only living species of Homo.

10,000 BCE: Humans begin to develop farming in the “Fertile Crescent,” a highly fertile crescent-shaped region in the Middle East which includes Ancient Egypt, Ancient Mesopotamia, and the Levant.

[Minimalist]

Timely.

http://english.cri.cn/6909/2009/12/02/1361s533045.htm

In a swirl of snowflakes, the bronze bust of Peking Man is an unflinching sentinel in front of the main entrance of the museum in Zhoukoudian Caves on a bitingly cold morning.

It must have been a similar day on Dec. 2, 1929, when Chinese paleontologist Pei Wenzhong made his discovery -- the first complete skull of Peking Man, or Homo erectus -- at the Zhoukoudian excavation site.

The investigation started in 1921 when Swedish geologist John Gunnar Anderson came to search for animal fossils. Under the guidance of Austrian Otto Zdansky, the first excavations started and two hominid teeth were found in 1926.

They continued when Davidson Black, a Canadian paleoanthropologist working at Zhoukoudian, applied for financial support from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1927. He defined a new species called Sinanthropus pekinensis which was later changed to Homo erectus pekinensis. By 1937 researchers had found 200 human fossils from about 40 individual specimens.

[Rokcet Scientist]

It's like an Indiana Jones movie: the 200 fossils/specimen were lost during WWII...

I'm assuming they still have good casts, and/or photos and drawings of them somewhere that
can be studied?

Of note (imo):

Peking Man was previously believed to have lived in Zhoukoudian Caves in present-day Fangshan District about 400,000 to 500,000 years ago. But in March, Chinese scientists, including Shen, revealed they were actually 200,000 years older, probably from a mild glacial period.

So Peking Man was 'only' about 100,000 years younger than Java Man. Was Peking Man a straight descendant of Java Man, or a descendent of another HE line?

[uniface]

Get 'em while they're hot !

http://www.boneroom.com/casts/hominidcasts.htm