Homo erectus

/hoh"moh i rek"teuhs/

1. an extinct species of the human lineage, formerly known as Pithecanthropus erectus, having upright stature and a well-evolved postcranial skeleton, but with a smallish brain, low forehead, and protruding face. See illus. under hominid.

2. a fossil belonging to this species. Cf. Arago man, Java man, Peking man.

[1970-75; < NL: upright man]

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(Latin; "erect man")

Extinct species of early hominid that is generally thought to be a direct ancestor of modern Homo sapiens.

H. erectus flourished from с 1,600,000 years ago to 250,000 years ago, ranging widely from Africa (where the species originated) to Asia to parts of Europe. Most of the anatomical differences between H. erectus and H. sapiens concern the skull and teeth, H. erectus showing a low, thick braincase (800–1,100 cc) with jutting browridges and a wide nose, palate, and jaw together with large teeth that are nevertheless hominid and not apelike. The limb bones are similar to those of H. sapiens, indicating that H. erectus was of medium stature and walked upright. The species is associated with the Acheulean tool tradition and was the first hominid to master fire and inhabit caves. See also human evolution; Java man; Zhoukoudian.

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▪ hominin

Introduction

Latin“upright man”

 extinct species of the human genus ( Homo), perhaps an ancestor of modern humans ( Homo sapiens). H. erectus most likely originated in Africa, though Eurasia cannot be ruled out. Regardless of where it first evolved, the species seems to have dispersed quickly, starting about 1.7 million years ago (mya) near the beginning of the Pleistocene Epoch, moving through the African tropics, Europe, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. This history has been recorded directly if imprecisely by many sites that have yielded fossil remains of H. erectus. At other localities, broken animal bones and stone tools have indicated the presence of the species, though there are no traces of the people themselves. H. erectus was a human of medium stature that walked upright. The braincase was low, the forehead was receded, and the nose, jaws, and palate were wide. The brain was smaller and the teeth larger than in modern humans. H. erectus seems to have flourished until some 200,000 years ago (200 kya) or perhaps later before giving way to other humans including Homo sapiens.

Fossil evidence

The earliest finds

 The first fossils attributed to Homo erectus were discovered by a Dutch army surgeon, Eugène Dubois (Dubois, Eugène), who began his search for ancient human bones on the island of Java (now part of Indonesia) in 1890. Dubois found his first specimen in the same year, and in 1891 a well-preserved skullcap was unearthed at Trinil on the Solo River. Considering its prominent browridges, retreating forehead, and angled rear skull, Dubois concluded that the Trinil cranium showed anatomic features intermediate between those of humans (as they were then understood) and those of apes. Several years later, near where the skull was discovered, he found a remarkably complete and modern-looking femur (thighbone). Since this bone was so similar to a modern human femur, Dubois decided that the individual to which it belonged must have walked erect. He adopted the name Pithecanthropus (coined earlier by the German zoologist Ernst Haeckel (Haeckel, Ernst)) and called his discoveries Pithecanthropus erectus (“upright ape-man”), but the colloquial term became “ Java man.” Only a few other limb fragments turned up in the Trinil excavations, and it would be some three decades before more substantial evidence appeared. Most paleontologists now regard all of this material as H. erectus, and the name Pithecanthropus has been dropped.

Other Asian fossils

  Subsequent discoveries continued to establish a case for this new and separate species of fossil hominin. At first these discoveries were centred largely in Asia. For example, similar fossils were found during the early 20th century at several different locations in Java: Kedung Brubus, Mojokerto (Modjokerto), Sangiran, Ngandong (Solo (Solo man)), Sambungmacan (Sambungmachan), and Ngawi. Another series of finds was made in China beginning in the 1920s, especially in the caves and fissures of Zhoukoudian (Chou-k'ou-tien), near Beijing. Remains found at Zhoukoudian by Davidson Black (Black, Davidson) became popularly known as Peking man; virtually all of these remains were subsequently lost by 1941 during the Sino-Japanese War (1937–45), though casts of them still exist. Newer discoveries have since been made in the Zhoukoudian caves and at four other Chinese sites: Gongwangling (Kung-wang-ling) and Chenjiawo (Ch'en-chia-wo) in the Lantian (Lantian man) (Lan-t'ien) district of Shaanxi province (Shensi), Hulu Cave near Nanjing (Nanking), and Hexian (Ho-hsien) in Anhui province (Anhui). By the end of World War II the pattern of early discovery had given rise to the idea that H. erectus was a peculiarly Asian expression of early humans. Subsequent discoveries in Africa changed this view, and by the end of the 20th century it was confirmed that Europe also harboured H. erectus.

African fossils

 In North Africa in 1954–55, excavations at Tighenif (Ternifine) (Ternifine), east of Mascara, Algeria, yielded remains dating to approximately 700,000 years ago whose nearest affinities seemed to be with the Chinese form of H. erectus. Other Moroccan hominin fragments from this region—parts of a skull found in 1933 near Rabat and jaws and teeth from Sīdī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (Sidi Abderrahman) in Morocco—show features reminiscent of H. erectus, though they are rather more advanced in structure than those of Tighenif and Asia. Another fossil likened to H. erectus is a 400,000-year-old cranium found in 1971 at Salé, Morocco. Although nearly all of the face and part of the forehead have broken away, it is an important specimen.

      Some of the more convincing evidence for the existence of H. erectus in Africa came with the discovery in 1960 of a partial braincase at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. This fossil, catalogued as OH 9, was excavated by Louis S.B. Leakey (Leakey, Louis S.B.) and is probably about 1.2 million years old. Olduvai Gorge has since yielded additional cranial remains, jaws, and limb bones of H. erectus. Much of this material is fragmentary, but gaps in our knowledge of East African H. erectus have been filled to some extent through finds made by Louis Leakey's son, Richard Leakey (Leakey, Richard). Since 1970 a number of important fossils have been unearthed at localities on the eastern shore of Lake Turkana (Lake Rudolf (Rudolf, Lake)) in northwestern Kenya, now commonly referred to as the Koobi Fora sites (Koobi Fora). The fossils recovered there may be about 1.7 million years old, based on radiometric dating of the associated volcanic material. Included in these assemblages are the remains of Australopithecus and probably some representatives of early Homo. Of several specimens that are clearly Homo, one cranium (KNM-ER 3733) is quite complete and well-preserved. Dated to 1.75 mya, it is likely to be one of the most ancient H. erectus fossils discovered in Africa. It and other specimens from Koobi Fora are considered by some paleontologists to be a separate species they call H. ergaster. Other significant finds in this area include a partially intact skeleton (KNM-ER 1808), although it comes from a diseased individual. A more complete skeleton named “Turkana Boy” (KNM-WT 15000) was found nearby at Nariokotome, a site on the northwestern shore of Lake Turkana. The remains of this juvenile male have provided much information about growth, development, and body proportions of an early member of the species.

European fossils

      Although it has been recognized for some time that Africa as well as Asia was peopled by at least one form of H. erectus, the situation in Europe is less clear. One of the oldest European hominin fossils is an isolated mandible (lower jawbone) with teeth, found in 1907 in a sandpit just north of Mauer, Germany, near Heidelberg. Dating to about 500,000 years ago, it has been given a variety of names over the years (see Heidelberg jaw), but its exact relationship to other fossils remains uncertain, partly because no associated cranium was found. Some investigators have come to regard the Mauer mandible as representing H. erectus. Although its age is perhaps comparable to that of the older Zhoukoudian hominins in China, this European specimen shows more modern structural features than do the Asian and African jaws of H. erectus. The exact significance of these features in the Mauer jaw is still being debated, and some consider it a separate species (H. heidelbergensis (Homo heidelbergensis)) that is slightly more advanced in its anatomy than the African and Asian populations. Another fossil that may tentatively be grouped with the Mauer mandible is a lower leg bone (tibia) found in 1993 during excavations at Boxgrove, West Sussex, England.

      More convincing evidence for the presence of H. erectus in Europe has come from Ceprano in central Italy, where a skull lacking its face was found in 1994. Clay deposits surrounding it contain no volcanic material that is directly datable, but the fossil is probably somewhat older than the Mauer mandible. The Ceprano individual displays the heavy continuous brow, low braincase, angled rear skull, and thick cranial bones that are characteristic of H. erectus.

      Other important fossils have been recovered in the southern Caucasus region of Georgia. Excavations at the medieval village of Dmanisi revealed a jaw with a full set of teeth in 1991. Found along with animal bones and crude stone tools, this specimen has been likened to H. erectus, and it is much more ancient than the remains from Mauer or Ceprano. In 1999 two more craniums were reported from the same site. These well-preserved individuals confirm the presence of H. erectus at the gates to Europe and seem to resemble the fossils from the Koobi Fora sites in Kenya. Dated to 1.7 mya, the Dmanisi hominins are among the oldest known outside of Africa, and they bear directly on the question of how H. erectus evolved (human evolution) and dispersed across the Old World.

Dating the fossils

      To reconstruct the position of H. erectus in hominin evolution, it is essential to define the place of this species in time, and modern paleoanthropologists have at their disposal a variety of techniques that permit them to do so with great precision. potassium-argon dating, for instance, can provide the age of a specimen by clocking the rate at which radioactive isotopes of these elements have decayed. When radiometric methods cannot be applied, investigators may still ascribe a relative age to a fossil by relating it to the other contents of the deposit in which it was found.

      Such lines of evidence have led to the tentative conclusion that H. erectus flourished over a long interval of Pleistocene time. The fossils recovered at Koobi Fora are from about 1.7 mya, and OH 9 from Olduvai is probably 1.2 million years old. The specimens from Sangiran and Mojokerto in Java may approach the age of the Koobi Fora skeletons, and one from the Lantian localities in China is roughly contemporary with OH 9. The youngest hominins generally accepted as H. erectus are from Tighenif in Algeria (800–600 kya), Zhoukoudian in China (500–250 kya), and Sambungmacan and Ngandong (Solo) in Java (perhaps less than 250 kya).

      For the most part, fossils older than 1.7 million years are the remains of H. habilis and H. rudolfensis. These species are also known from Olduvai Gorge and Koobi Fora in Africa, the oldest specimens being about 2.0 to 1.8 million years in age. On the other hand, there is a group of later specimens that show some features of H. erectus but are commonly regarded either as “archaic” representatives of Homo sapiens or as belonging to H. heidelbergensis; these include specimens from Europe (Mauer, Arago, Bilzingsleben, and Petralona (Petralona skull)), northwestern Africa (Rabat and perhaps Salé and Sīdī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān), eastern and southern Africa (Kabwe (Kabwe cranium), Elandsfontein, Ndutu, Omo, and Bodo), and Asia (the Dali find of 1978).

Body structure

 Much of the fossil material discovered in Java and China consists of cranial bones, jawbones, and teeth. The few broken limb bones found at Zhoukoudian have provided little information. It is possible that the complete femur excavated by Dubois at Trinil is more recent in age than the other fossils found there and not attributable to H. erectus. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that the greatest descriptive emphasis has been on the shape of the skull rather than other parts of the skeleton. The continuing discoveries in Africa (particularly at the Olduvai and Lake Turkana sites) have yielded a more complete picture of H. erectus anatomy.

      The cranium of H. erectus, with its low profile and average endocranial (brain) capacity of less than 1,000 cubic cm (61 cubic inches), is distinctly different from that of other humans. The average endocranial capacity of modern Homo sapiens, for example, is 1,350 cubic cm, although the range for recent humans is appreciable, perhaps 1,000 to 2,000 cubic cm. The upper part of the maximum estimated range for H. erectus endocranial capacity (1,200 cubic cm) thus overlaps with the lower values expected for Homo sapiens.

      Some difference in estimated brain size is apparent between the Javanese and the Zhoukoudian populations of H. erectus. That is, the average capacity of the Zhoukoudian fossils exceeds that of the Javanese by about 160 cubic cm. There is, however, an earlier, anomalous cranium from Gongwangling, China, that is approximately contemporary with some Java fossils. It shares with the Javanese group a smaller cranial capacity (780 cubic cm). Theoretically, the difference in brain size between the two groups of Asian fossils may be the consequence of further evolution in later populations of H. erectus. Alternatively, it may simply be interpreted as representing the variation expected between sexes or between two separate populations or subspecies of H. erectus. Several African values are also available, and in the case of the Koobi Fora and Olduvai individuals these range from about 850 to 1,067 cubic cm.

       Average Capacity of the Braincase in Fossil Hominins Average Capacity of the Braincase in Fossil HomininsWhile the cranial capacity of H. erectus falls short of that of Homo sapiens, it far exceeds the capacities of the australopiths. The difference between Australopithecus and H. erectus is slightly greater than that between H. erectus and Homo sapiens. Into the former gap fit the cranial capacities of H. habilis (Homo habilis) and H. rudolfensis. Clearly, the last word has not been written on their relationships.

 Besides their brain capacity, the skulls of H. erectus show a number of other distinctive features. The face, which is preserved in only a few specimens, is massively constructed, and its lower parts project forward. The bone forming the wall of the nose is thinner and more everted than in earlier Homo or Australopithecus, and the nasal bridge is relatively high and prominent. This development suggests that H. erectus was well-equipped to conserve moisture that would otherwise be lost during exhalation. Such a physiological advantage would have allowed early African H. erectus to travel for longer periods in an arid environment. The braincase is low, with thick bones and sides that taper upward. Over the eye sockets is a strongly jutting browridge (supraorbital torus). There is a flattened forehead, and the part of the cranium immediately behind the browridge is appreciably constricted from side to side. A low ridge or crest of bone extends from the frontal bone along the midline of some skulls, and there tend to be strongly developed crests in the ear region. The broad-based skull has another ridge running across it. The area where the neck muscles attach is much larger than in H. habilis or Homo sapiens. Other distinguishing features in H. erectus can be found on the underside of the skull, especially at the jaw joint. The lower jaw itself is deep and robust and lacks chin development. The teeth are on the whole larger than those of Homo sapiens.

      The femur is the most commonly recovered noncranial fossil. Apart from the puzzling Trinil specimen, a number of femurs have been found at Zhoukoudian, and more have been recovered from sites in Africa. These bones resemble those of modern humans, and H. erectus must have walked upright efficiently. Its skeleton is robust, suggesting that the lifestyle of H. erectus was physically demanding. The limb bones also supply information about the size of H. erectus. Size influences behaviour and various aspects of anatomy, including bodily proportions. One measure of size is stature, or height. The femurs found at Zhoukoudian and Koobi Fora are too broken to yield a good estimate of the height of these individuals, but accurate measurements of the boy's skeleton found at Nariokotome have been made. Although he was not fully grown, it is thought that the boy would have reached 180 cm (6 feet) in height.

      The total pattern of the bodily structure of H. erectus, as preserved in the fossils, is different from that of Homo sapiens, hence its classification as a separate species. Parts of its skeleton are more robust, but it is otherwise comparable to that of modern humans. The brain is relatively small, though not so small as that of Australopithecus and H. habilis (Homo habilis). Unlike Homo sapiens and H. habilis, later species of Australopithecus and H. erectus have thick skull bones and extraordinarily developed browridges. Some paleoanthropologists (paleoanthropology) maintain that H. erectus has features not present in its presumed ancestors or in Homo sapiens and that Asian H. erectus, with a thick cranium and large adornments on the skull, could not have been on any direct evolutionary line to Homo sapiens, noting that early Australopithecus and H. habilis are more ancient but had skulls more like ours, with thin bones and only modest enhancements on the cranium. These scientists point instead to early African H. erectus, sometimes referred to as a distinct species named H. ergaster, as the more probable ancestral form. This species is considered to have evolved, perhaps through an intermediate step (H. heidelbergensis), in the direction of modern humans.

      Such a reading of the fossil record may be incorrect. In fact, there is very little evidence about the variability of features such as cranial thickness and external embellishments of the skull among even one population of H. erectus, let alone among different populations dispersed through two or three large continents. Practically nothing is known about the climatic or ecological conditions under which cranial thickening occurred. Also unknown is the relationship between skull growth and the brain enlargement that is such a striking feature of hominin evolution. These and many other questions must be answered before H. erectus can be either confirmed or written off as an ancestor of Homo sapiens. In the meantime, all that can be said with any certainty is that H. erectus, in a broad geographic sense over the course of more than one million years, evolved from pre-Homo erectus (probably H. habilis or H. rudolfensis) to post-Homo erectus—that is, to H. heidelbergensis or perhaps directly to archaic Homo sapiens.

Behavioral inferences

      At Zhoukoudian the remains of H. erectus were found in cave and fissure deposits. Although this does not prove that these hominins were habitual cave dwellers, the additional evidence of associated remains—such as stone, charred animal bones, collections of seeds, and what could be ancient hearths and charcoal—all points to H. erectus as having spent periods of time in the grottoes of Zhoukoudian. On the other hand, the remains of Lantian, Trinil, Sangiran, and Mojokerto, as well as Tighenif, Olduvai, and Koobi Fora, were all found in open sites, sometimes in stream gravels and clays, sometimes in river sandstones, and sometimes in lake beds. These suggest that H. erectus also lived in open encampments along the banks of streams or on the shores of lakes and also that proximity to water was crucial to survival. These presumed campsites were revealed by excavation, and they contain abundant stone implements and stone chips that surely resulted from human manufacture. Fractured and partly burned bones of animals found at the sites indicate that H. erectus may have either hunted or scavenged meat.

      There is little doubt that mastery of fire was an important factor in colonizing cooler regions. Indeed, this discovery may have sped the migrations of ancient humans into the chilly, often glaciated expanses of prehistoric Europe. Sooner or later humans started cooking their food, thus reducing the work demanded of their teeth. This in turn may have played an important part in minimizing the evolutionary advantage of big teeth, since cooked food needs far less cutting, tearing, and grinding than does raw food. This relaxation of the selective pressure favouring the survival of people with large, strong teeth may have led directly to a reduction in the size of the teeth—an important consideration given that this is one of the features distinguishing Homo sapiens from H. erectus.

      Zhoukoudian has been cited as providing signs that humans had mastery of fire 400,000 years ago. Investigators reported ash and charcoal accumulations that resemble hearths, and it is possible that H. erectus used fire in the caves for warmth and for preparing food. However, more recent research shows that at least some of the “ash” is instead sediment probably deposited by water. Nevertheless, burned bones are present, and these relics may still speak to the ability of the Zhoukoudian inhabitants to roast meat.

      Other signs of the culture of H. erectus are implements found in the same deposits as their bones. Chopping tools and flakes made from split pebbles characterize both the Zhoukoudian and Dmanisi deposits; both are members of a so-called Chopper chopping-tool (Chopper chopping-tool industry) family of industries. At Tighenif in northwestern Africa, H. erectus was found in association with totally different kinds of stone implements; these comprise double-edged hand axes and scrapers that have been characterized as representing what archaeologists call an early Acheulean industry. This is part of the great Acheulean hand-ax industrial complex, remnants of which are found widely spread over large parts of Europe and Africa. An Acheulean industry is known also from Olduvai Gorge, as is a local, more ancient form of stone chopper manufacture known as the Oldowan industry, but the exact cultural associations of these stone tools with African H. erectus (as exemplified by OH 9) are uncertain.

      Hence, H. erectus has been found associated in some parts of the world with a Chopper chopping-tool tradition and in other places with an Acheulean double-edged hand-ax industrial complex. Numerous animal bones occur also with the remains of H. erectus, and sometimes these bones seem to have been deliberately broken or charred. From this evidence it is sometimes inferred that H. erectus was a hunter (hunting). The brain, body size, and manufactured equipment of H. erectus were so superior to those of Australopithecus and H. habilis that it is highly probable that food-collecting techniques, including hunting, were also better. Many scientists hold that Australopithecus and H. habilis were more scavengers than hunters, perhaps at best opportunists who seized their chance when a weak, young, sick, or aged animal crossed their paths. Indeed, many of the animal bones found in australopith deposits are of juvenile and old individuals. Although larger animal bones have been recovered from H. habilis deposits, these have exhibited tooth marks of nonhuman predators as well as cut marks. H. erectus, on the other hand, seems to have been a confirmed hunter whose prey included animals of all age groups.

      It can credibly be supposed that, as with present-day hunters such as the African San (Bushmen) and the Australian Aboriginals (Australian Aborigine), meat from the hunt formed only a part of the diet of H. erectus. Other juicy morsels may have been furnished by snakes, birds and their eggs, locusts, scorpions, centipedes, tortoises, mice and other rodents, hedgehogs, fish, and crustaceans. Even children could have caught many of these—as they still do in Africa's Kalahari Desert today, before being allowed to accompany the older men on the hunt. Vegetable food—such as fleshy leaves, fruits, nuts, roots, and tubers—also must have been important in the diet of H. erectus. Accumulations of hackberry seeds, for example, were found in the Zhoukoudian cave deposits. There seems to be little doubt that H. erectus was omnivorous (omnivore), for such a diet is the most opportunistic of all, and modern humans are the most opportunistic of all living primates. H. erectus was probably one of the earliest of the great opportunists, and it is likely that this attribute endowed the species with adaptability and evolutionary flexibility.

      Another question that may be asked about H. erectus culture is whether there is any evidence of ritual. There is no sign that they buried their dead: no complete burials have been found, nor have graves, grave goods, or red ochre (a mineral used as a paint by later forms of hominins), either on or around any bones. Cannibalism was once inferred from the Ngandong (Solo) and Zhoukoudian finds, but little credible evidence remains to support such a hypothesis.

Relationship to Homo sapiens

The question of ancestry

      A few researchers have generally opposed the view that H. erectus was the direct ancestor of later species, including Homo sapiens. Louis Leakey (Leakey, Louis S.B.) argued energetically that H. erectus populations, particularly in Africa, overlap in time with more advanced Homo sapiens and therefore cannot be ancestral to the latter. Some support for Leakey's point of view has come from analysis of anatomic characteristics exhibited by the fossils. By emphasizing a distinction between “primitive” and “derived” traits in the reconstruction of relationships between species, several paleontologists have attempted to show that H. erectus does not make a suitable morphological ancestor for Homo sapiens. Because the braincase is long, low, and thick-walled and presents a strong browridge, they claim that H. erectus shows derived (or specialized) characteristics not shared with more modern humans. At the same time, it is noted, Homo sapiens does share some features, including a rounded, lightly built cranium, with earlier hominins such as H. habilis. For these reasons, some paleontologists (including Leakey) consider the more slender, or “gracile,” H. habilis and H. rudolfensis to be more closely related to Homo sapiens than is H. erectus. These findings are not widely accepted, however. Instead, studies of size in human evolution indicate that representatives of Homo can be grouped into a reasonable ancestor-to-descendant sequence showing increases in body size. Despite having a heavier, more flattened braincase, H. erectus, most particularly the African representatives of the species sometimes called H. ergaster, is not out of place in this sequence.

      If this much is agreed, there is still uncertainty as to how and where H. erectus eventually gave rise to Homo sapiens. This is a major question in the study of human evolution and one that resists resolution even when hominin fossils from throughout the Old World are surveyed in detail. Several general hypotheses have been advanced, but there is still no firm consensus regarding models of gradual change as opposed to scenarios of rapid evolution in which change in one region is followed by migration of the new populations into other areas.

Theories of gradual change

      A traditional view held by some paleontologists is that a species may be transformed gradually into a succeeding species. Such successive species in the evolutionary sequence are called chronospecies. The boundaries between chronospecies are almost impossible to determine by means of any objective anatomic or functional criteria; thus, all that is left is the guesswork of drawing a boundary at a moment in time. Such a chronological boundary may have to be drawn arbitrarily between the last survivors of H. erectus and the earliest members of a succeeding species (e.g., Homo sapiens). The problem of defining the limits of chronospecies is not peculiar to H. erectus; it is one of the most vexing questions in paleontology.

      Such gradual change with continuity between successive forms has been postulated particularly for North Africa, where H. erectus at Tighenif is seen as ancestral to later populations at Rabat, Temara, Jebel Irhoud, and elsewhere. Gradualism has also been postulated for Southeast Asia, where H. erectus at Sangiran may have progressed toward populations such as those at Ngandong (Solo) and at Kow Swamp in Australia. Some researchers have suggested that similar developments could have occurred in other parts of the world.

      The supposed interrelation of cultural achievement and the shape and size of teeth, jaws, and brain is a theorized state of affairs with which some paleoanthropologists disagree. Throughout the human fossil record there are examples of dissociation between skull shape and size on the one hand and cultural achievement on the other. For example, a smaller-brained H. erectus may have been among the first humans to tame fire, but much bigger-brained people in other regions of the world living later in time have left no evidence that they knew how to handle it. Gradualism is at the core of the so-called “multiregional” hypothesis (see human evolution), in which it is theorized that H. erectus evolved into Homo sapiens not once but several times as each subspecies of H. erectus, living in its own territory, passed some postulated critical threshold. This theory depends on accepting a supposed erectus-sapiens threshold as correct. It is opposed by supporters of the “out of Africa” hypothesis, who find the threshold concept at variance with the modern genetic theory of evolutionary change.

Theories of punctuated change

      A gradual transition from H. erectus to Homo sapiens is one interpretation of the fossil record, but the evidence also can be read differently. Many researchers have come to accept what can be termed a punctuated view of human evolution. This view suggests that species such as H. erectus may have exhibited little or no morphological change over long periods of time (evolutionary stasis) and that the transition from one species to a descendant form may have occurred relatively rapidly and in a restricted geographic area rather than on a worldwide basis. Whether any Homo species, including our own, evolved gradually or rapidly has not been settled.

      The continuation of such arguments underlines the need for more fossils to establish the range of physical variation of H. erectus and also for more discoveries in good archaeological contexts to permit more precise dating. Additions to these two bodies of data may settle remaining questions and bring the problems surrounding the evolution of H. erectus nearer to resolution.

Phillip Vallentine Tobias G. Philip Rightmire

Additional Reading

Noel T. Boaz and Russell L. Ciochon, Dragon Bone Hill: An Ice-Age Saga of Homo erectus (2004), investigates the science and saga of the remains found at Zhoukoudian, China. Alan Walker and Pat Shipman, The Wisdom of the Bones: In Search of Human Origins (1996), is a similar treatment of the Nariokotome skeleton of Kenya. G. Philip Rightmire, The Evolution of Homo erectus: Comparative Anatomical Studies of an Extinct Human Species (1990, reissued 1993), is a more advanced examination of Homo erectus fossil evidence.

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