Expanding Homo erectus.

It was at Trinil, a small village in Central Java, that Eug?ne Dubois found at the end of last century the skullcap and thighbone of an early hominid, namely Pithecanthropus erectus. Today we know that this ape-man was much more advanced than Dubois ever supposed. Pithecanthropus is now included in the genus Homo. To be more precise, Pithecanthropus belongs to the species Homo erectus; and th? specimen from Trinil (the first Homo erectus to be found anywhere in the world) forms within it the subspecies Homo erectus erectus. This hominid of Trinil no longer stands in isolation. Also at other places in Java fossil hominid remains have been found, which either belong to this subspecies Homo erectus erectus, or are included in other subspecies (e.g. in Homo erectus soloensis). The most prolific site of fossil hominid remains at the moment is Sangiran, situated some ten kilometres to the north of Surakarta, in Central Java. Homo erectus evolved from Homo habilis on the grassy plains of Upper Pliocene and Basal Pleistocene East Africa some 2 million years ago, and from there he began his wanderings across the Old World. Java was in fact thus the end of a long trek for Homo erectus. But he obviously felt very much at home on Java. There he found a comfortable niche, in which he was able to survive for several hundred thousand years without undergoing many changes. The finds of hominid remains in Java have increased in recent years. This is due to the activities of the Indonesian archaeological service (Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi Nasional), as a result of which research on early man on Java is now proceeding in a coordinated and systematic

Mapping and taphonomic analysis of the Homo erectus loci at Locality 1 Zhoukoudian, China

New Hominin calvaria discovery from Grenzbank Layer of Sangiran Dome (Java, Indonesia): The last archaic Homo erectus lived in Java

Mankind is thought to have separated from a common ancestor shared with chimpanzees approximately 7 million years ago.1 At the time, among our ancestors was a group that decided to come down from the trees to live in the savanna as desertification of Africa's forests progressed. Although the term “ape-man” was used for early mankind who walked on two feet, improvements in the precision of dating methods and excavations from the latter half of the 20th century made it clear that many types of human species coexisted. Thus, the term “ape-man” is now only rarely used. Bipedalism was likely something attempted by many groups, and although many theories exist, the underlying reason for this transition is unclear.2 However, the advantages are clear – it enabled viewing vast distances and the use of hands to carry food, and ultimately led to the expansion of brain size. Interestingly, it took our ancestors an additional 4 million years to expand their brain size. This evolutionary delay might have been caused by climate changes in Africa. The progressively drying climate led to reductions in forestland, and our ancestors who lived on the plains were subjected to a new type of natural selection pressure, causing changes in their physique and behavior. One possible reason that orangutans remained in the trees when transported to Asia by continental drift was that although Africa and the Northern hemisphere began to dry and cool from approximately 30 million to 2.5 million years ago, Asia's forests in the tropical regions remained intact. Evidence of brain size expansion and the use of tools can be found from approximately 2.5 million years ago. Mankind at this stage is referred to as Homo habilis or Homo rudolfensis. The concept of pre-adaptation refers to gradually altering physique in advance so that it works to one's advantage once subjected to a particular environment. For instance, the advantages of walking erect are thought to have played an important role in the evolution of mankind much later; that is, approximately 2.5 million years later. The expansion of brain size also brought about a revolution in food energy, which accompanied the use of stone tools – the ability to ingest high caloric and nutritious meat products. Although they were “meat-eating” and hunted herbivorous animals on occasion, their meat supply likely came from food left over by carnivorous animals. In addition to increasing meat-eating efficiency, the expansion of brain size was accompanied by acquisition of modern man's physique, an expanded range of activity and loss of body hair. Although many human species remained in Africa, one group, the Peking man or Java man (also known as Homo erectus) moved to Eurasia approximately 1.8 million years ago in an event referred to as the first African exodus. At least one group of Homo erectus began using fire, a monumental event in mankind's history. Homo erectus existed until 250 000 years ago. We enter the age of modern man from approximately 200 000 years ago. The Neanderthals were another species of man that coexisted with modern humans during this period. This period saw the use of symbols, language and original art-forms. One group of modern humans left Africa approximately 100 000 years ago, and eventually adapted to all global environments in an event famously known as the second African exodus. Many terrains were conquered, including grasslands, deserts and mountains, and humans began living under various climates (tropical, temperate and polar). The conquering of various terrains is evidenced by the existence of Eskimos in polar regions, Bushmen in the deserts, Pygmies in the tropical rain forests, and Tibetan highlanders. The spreading of humans was particularly fast, with humans reaching Europe, Asia, North and South America, and Australia within the span of tens of thousands of years. Mankind at the time formed small nomadic groups and lived as hunter-gatherers. From a modest population of approximately 100 000 about 1 million years ago, the global population dramatically increased to 500 000 about 200 000 years ago, and further to approximately 10 million with the advent of agriculture about 10 000 years ago.3

This book recreates the story of life before Homo sapiens walked the earth. It was once thought that “Peking Man”, the remains of a cave man discovered at the famous fossil site of Dragon Bone Hill in China, had been a great hunter. But Peking Man was actually a composite of the remains of some fifty women, children, and men unfortunate enough to have been the prey of a giant cave hyena. The book retells the story of the cave's unique species of early human, Homo erectus. New evidence shows that Homo erectus was an opportunist who rode a tide of environmental change out of Africa into Eurasia, puddle-jumping from one gene pool to the next. Armed with a shaky hold on fire and some sharp rocks, Homo erectus survived for over 1.5 million years, much longer than Homo sapiens, our own species, has been on Earth. Tell-tale marks on fossil bones show that the lives of these early humans were brutal, yet there are fleeting glimpses of human compassion as well. The small brain of Homo erectus and its strangely unchanging culture indicate that the species could not talk. Part of that primitive culture included ritualized aggression, to which the extremely thick skulls of Homo erectus bear witness.

Scholars have debated the taxonomic identity of isolated primate teeth from the Asian Pleistocene for over a century, which is complicated by morphological and metric convergence between orangutan (Pongo) and hominin (Homo) molariform teeth. Like Homo erectus, Pongo once showed considerable dental variation and a wide distribution throughout mainland and insular Asia. In order to clarify the utility of isolated dental remains to document the presence of hominins during Asian prehistory, we examined enamel thickness, enamel-dentine junction shape, and crown development in 33 molars from G. H. R. von Koenigswald's Chinese Apothecary collection (11 Sinanthropus officinalis [= Homo erectus], 21 “Hemanthropus peii,” and 1 “Hemanthropus peii” or Pongo) and 7 molars from Sangiran dome (either Homo erectus or Pongo). All fossil teeth were imaged with non-destructive conventional and/or synchrotron micro-computed tomography. These were compared to H. erectus teeth from Zhoukoudian, Sangiran and Trinil, and a large comparative sample of fossil Pongo, recent Pongo, and recent human teeth. We find that Homo and Pongo molars overlap substantially in relative enamel thickness; molar enamel-dentine junction shape is more distinctive, with Pongo showing relatively shorter dentine horns and wider crowns than Homo. Long-period line periodicity values are significantly greater in Pongo than in H. erectus, leading to longer crown formation times in the former. Most of the sample originally assigned to S. officinalis and H. erectus shows greater affinity to Pongo than to the hominin comparative sample. Moreover, enamel thickness, enamel-dentine junction shape, and a long-period line periodicity value in the “Hemanthropus peii” sample are indistinguishable from fossil Pongo. These results underscore the need for additional recovery and study of associated dentitions prior to erecting new taxa from isolated teeth.

Since Darwin’s postulated the origin of the human species from an ape-like ancestor, the search for the missing link between ape and human had begun. In 1887, Eugene Dubois traveled from the Netherlands to Indonesia to search for the missing link. He eventually discovered human fossils in Wajak, Kedungbrubus, and Trinil to which he named Pithecanthropus erectus. The research was then continued by Ter Haar (1931) in Ngandong, Dujfyes, and his assistant, Andoyo (1936) in Perning, Mojokerto, and Von Koenigswald (1936-1940) in Sangiran, who successfully discovered many Homo erectus fossils. Since the 1960s, Sartono (ITB), T. Jacob (UGM), and Geological Research and Development Centre (Indonesia) continue the study, adding the collection of the specimens. Collaboration with the National Museum of Science and Nature, Tokyo concluded that Indonesian Homo erectus went through local evolution instead of static evolution condition. Indonesia is rich in natural resources and environmental conditions that were suitable for the evolution of early humans as shown by the discovery of several Homo erectus skeleton fossils that were not found in most other countries. This is a blessing left by early humans to us.

Phylogenetic analysis of the calvaria of Homo floresiensis

It is common to praise archaeologists for their major discoveries, this is how the name of Otto Zdansky (1894-1988) is linked to that of the Peking Man he discovered at the end of the summer of 1921 in China, 48 km from Beijing (Peking). Less often mentioned is the interest given by the inventor to research undertaken on the fossil isolated teeth of this Homo erectus from China that he unearthed on the Zhoukoudian site (formerly Chou-kou-tien). These teeth of Sinanthropus pekinensis, which he had sent to Uppsala University of Sweden, had also become important in 1980 for me who was then trying to understand how ancient men lived. The three original isolated teeth discovered and described by Otto Zdansky, held at Uppsala in the ZKD (Zhoukoudian) collection since 1923 : Right upper M3 (1921) Left lower P3 (shipped in1923) Right lower P4 (1952), are reflecting the expanding interest of the1920s in the traces of the “peripheral” human evolution in China [Black 1926; Zdansky 1927, 1952]. In January 1980 I contacted Otto Zdansky (figure 1) to include their study; using a method I had started in 1976 to carry out an analysis of the wear of teeth examined under the microscope of populations in order to deduce the different food choices. This and excerpts from Otto Zdansky’s letters reproduced in bold italics bring to life this story of the discovery of the first fossilized remains of Peking Man.

Bernard Shaw as Political Writer

Wolpoff's (1984) recent discussion of evolutionary rates in Homo erectus deserves careful study. Whether Homo erectus or other hominid species exhibit gradual, continuous change in key characters or whether instead there is evidence for morphological stasis in the fossil record is an important question. By allocating all Homo erectus specimens to three groups of early, intermediate, and later geological age and by comparing group means for 13 measurements, Wolpoff attempts to show that gradualism is the rule for this mid-Pleistocene taxon. This method is straightforward, but it is crucial that the samples be composed in a manner which is biologically reasonable. I argue here that Wolpoff has not done this. While there may be legitimate doubt concerning sorting of the fossils, especially where specimens are incomplete, several of the individuals said to be representative of Homo erectus are simply inappropriate for use in this analysis. Wolpoff insists that he has employed a “conservative” definition of the species, but instead he has measured everything in sight. This approach to the record does influence his results.

M r Coppock and I were originally in broad agreement in our interpretation of the so-called 'Great Depression', but in my short note on this subject in this Review I put forward various arguments suggesting that he (and also myself) had previously exaggerated the U.K.'s 'deceleration' in this period. Mr Coppock now accepts some of my arguments, and doubts whether the period 'has been correctly dated and named'. On the other hand, however, he still calls himself a 'pessimist' on this question, and puts forward arguments to support this point of view. Obviously there are still some substantial differences between us, but I think it should be made quite clear that we are agreed on the fact of 'deceleration' or 'retardation' in the U.K.'s rate of economic growth after about i870. We disagree as to the extent and significance of this deceleration, but we are not, I think, far apart in our views as to its timing, though Mr Coppock suggests we are. In my previous article I quoted Hoffmann's figures to show that there was some deceleration prior to i870, but Mr Coppock goes to some pains to point out inconsistencies in Hoffmann, and to emphasize that there was 'a significant decline in the growth-rate after i873'. I have never disputed this: deceleration was undoubtedly more marked from that date. At the same time, Mr Coppock does not deny that the deceleration began before i873 indeed, he admits that there was 'gentler retardation' in previous years which is the point I was making in my last article. Mr Coppock also agrees with me that there was 'no significant increase in the trend growth-rate of the index, excluding building, between I 896 and I 9 I 3'. I emphasized this fact referring to Lomax's figures to show that from the point of view of industrial growth there was nothing peculiar about the socalled 'Great Depression' that it was not a great trough, but part of a longerterm process of deceleration lasting up to the First World War. I think Mr Coppock would agree with me that a distinction can only be made between the periods before and after I 896 in terms of the trends in prices and profits (though whether or not, or to what extent, profits fell before i896 is debatable). Whether the falling prices of the period i873-96 warrant use of the term 'Great Depression' is doubtful; the effects were not uniformly depressive. Mr Coppock and I also seem to be in broad agreement as to the causes of the retardation during these years, but he is somewhat equivocal on this score. In one place (p. 39i), he admits that my earlier article 'throws a great deal of light' upon the causes of Britain's lower rate of growth; but in another (p. 39X) he tends to suggest that I (unlike Professor Lewis and himself) accept Britain's earlier start in the Industrial Revolution as 'a complete explanation'. On p. 392

Dating the Pleistocene and also the Ice Ages is necessary. A period of “normal” magnetism, called the Olduvai Event, occurred about 1,8 m.y.a. It can be considered the boundary between the Pliocene and the Pleistocene, lying within the Matuyama Reversed Epoch, which ended some 700 000 y.a. The boundary between the Middle and Upper or late Pleistocene we shall accept as 125 000 y.a., which is also the beginning of the Eemian interglacial. Hominid fossils were discovered in both Java and China. From publications the names “Peking Man” and “Java Man” are well known. Today, these are referred to as Homo erectus. They are known by their very prominent supraorbital torus and postorbital constriction, alveolar prognathism and receding chin. With the widest part of the skull toward the bottom, it has a pentagonal shape. The rest of the skeleton is very little different from the modern skeleton. Fossil bones from Europe are scarce, but the little that have been found correspond with Erectus from the Far East. They date from the Middle Pleistocene.

An overlap of time period between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens has not been confirmed. There are two missing links in human history, i.e. between man and ape and between the progressive Homo erectus and archaic Homo sapiens. Specimen dating on Java Man has been discrepant among research groups, and the use of molecular biology in ancient specimens is a novelty. This study intends to use fossilised specimens to harvest and sequence the DNA for ribosomal analysis and formulating comparative phylogeny among ancient man, modern man, and other hominids. We aimed to reconstruct the evolution pathway, the phylogenetic tree between ancient and modern hominids, and discover the uniqueness of Homo sapiens sapiens. Dental calculus was analysed to identify starch, carbohydrate, and protein to illustrate paleo dietary pattern. Soil samples were examined for pollen and phytoliths to elaborate on ancient ecosystem. Blood samples were procured from indigenous people along the riverflow region of Bengawan Solo to analyse modern human DNA.

The recently described fossil angiosperm genus Eophylica (Rhamnaceae) was based on 18 amber-embedded specimens derived from two sites in northern Myanmar. A vegetatively similar fossil, which came from the same amber mines but which lacked flowers, had been previously described as a putative green alga and given the name Electrophycus. The dimensions and vegetative aspect of that taxon’s holotype specimen are identical with those of the Eophylica fossils. Four additional specimens were acquired by the senior author after the publication of Electrophycus, all of which have a single terminal flower that is either immature or essentially fully formed. Using techniques of floral dissection, high magnification microscopy, and microphotography of the better-developed flowers, we present a more detailed picture of the floral organs, especially the stamens and style, of Eophylica. These flowers differ from the holotype specimen of Eophylica and 3 of its paratypes in that they possess involucral bracts of a so-called ‘pseudanthial head,’ a structure that the authors of Eophylica had only ascribed to certain other paratype specimens of the genus.