Peking Man Fossils

[Aanica]

LINK to Science News

Peking Man fossils show their age New ages for the fossils feed suspicions that the ancient species migrated to Asia in two separate waves By Bruce Bower Web edition : Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 Text Size EnlargeEARLY TOOLSThese stone tools likely belonged to Peking Man, a set of Homo erectus fossils found in northeastern China that are now reported to date to 780,000 years ago.Ciochon/U. of IowaPeking Man has suddenly gotten much older, and with age comes re-evaluation. The Homo erectus fossils from China’s Zhoukoudian cave system that are referred to collectively as Peking Man date to 780,000 years ago, roughly 200,000 years earlier than usually thought, scientists say.

Along with recently revised dates for a handful of other Chinese H. erectus sites, the new evidence fits with the idea that H. erectus traveled to eastern Asia in two separate migrations.

It also suggests that this ancient member of the human evolutionary family reached northeastern China at a time of relatively cool temperatures, say geologist Guanjun Shen of Nanjing Normal University in China and his colleagues. Such climate conditions fostered the spread of open grasslands, or savannas, that H. erectus had favored in Africa and central Asia.

EnlargeEVIDENCE INSIDEAt China's Zhoukoudian cave, decades of excavations have unearthed many H. erectus fossils and stone artifactsCiochon/U. of IowaIn it for the long haul, H. erectus inhabited Zhoukoudian and nearby sites throughout a series of shifts from cool, dry climates to warm, wet conditions, Shen’s team reports in the March 12 Nature. Evidence indicates that H. erectus lived at Zhoukoudian until about 400,000 years ago, the researchers note.

“If Homo erectus groups lived there for that long, they must have passed behavioral traditions across many generations for adapting to climate cycles,” remarks anthropologist Russell Ciochon of the University of Iowa in Iowa City.

In several papers published from 2005 to 2008, other Chinese scientists reported that H. erectus — a species that originated about 2 million years ago in Africa — reached four sites northwest of Zhoukoudian and one site in southern China almost 1.3 million years ago, not 1.7 million years ago as had been suggested by earlier studies.

EnlargeMIXED CLIMATESThis colored diagram shows that revised dates for six Chinese H. erectus sites, including the Peking Man site at Zhoukoudian, correspond to specific periods of either cold and dry or warm and moist climates. Magnetic reversals measured in soil at each site provide a general age frame for the sequence of occupations, from 790,000 to 1.18 million years ago.Bettis/Ciochon/U. of IowaCombined with the new age for Peking Man, these dates suggest two H. erectus populations:One occupied northeastern China for almost 1 million years, and one that reached the Indonesia island of Java 1.6 to 1.5 million years ago. Part of this Java population may have survived until 50,000 years ago.

A huge forested region in southern China would have deterred H. erectus from traveling between northeastern China and Indonesia, according to Ciochon.

In a comment accompanying the new study, Ciochon and Iowa geologist Arthur Bettis III hypothesize that H. erectus populations in or just outside of Africa took two separate routes eastward into Asia. Ciochon and Bettis propose that an initial migration followed Asia’s southern coast to Java, which was at the time connected to the mainland. Later, H. erectus passed through central Asia and southern Mongolia to reach the Zhoukoudian vicinity.

Most recent models of H. erectus population movements posit that this species reached Java first and later dispersed northward to China. “It may be time to rethink that scenario,” Ciochon says.

Researchers first unearthed Peking Man fossils at Zhoukoudian in the 1920s. The Chinese site, located on the outskirts of Beijing, has since yielded 17,000 stone artifacts and fossils from more than 50 H. erectus individuals.

Peking Man’s formerly younger age had been estimated using several dating techniques that are vulnerable to large inaccuracies. But Shen’s team examined Zhoukoudian soil layers for signs of reversals in Earth’s magnetic field that occurred at known times. The researchers then employed a recently developed technique for estimating how long fossils have been covered by soil, based on different decay rates of radioactive forms of aluminum and beryllium in quartz grains.

After learning of Peking Man’s readjusted age, Bettis and Ciochon examined geological evidence for the presence of cold and dry or warm and wet climates at Zhoukoudian and the five other Chinese H. erectus sites with revised ages. H. erectus adapted to both climates in eastern Asia, the two scientists say.

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Found in: Anthropology and Humans Share & Save

[Torgo]

Nice! We've been studying human origins for a while in my archaeology class, and if one thing is clear it is that the spray of Homo erectus like species from Africa's migration across the old world is still not understood with high fidelity, or how each of the local populations of these hominids were genetically related to the others. More information and better information is always good, shedding light on our origins and the behavior of these hominids, our cousins.

[Aanica]

Nice! We've been studying human origins for a while in my archaeology class, and if one thing is clear it is that the spray of Homo erectus like species from Africa's migration across the old world is still not understood with high fidelity, or how each of the local populations of these hominids were genetically related to the others. More information and better information is always good, shedding light on our origins and the behavior of these hominids, our cousins.

Good observation, What you describe is usually in anthropology; while a clear relevance between the two exist.. your major?

[Torgo]

I'm actually a genetics major and astronomy minor, I'm taking archaeology because it is another way to understand our origins and because it is very interesting. The first third of the class was on human origins and history up to the upper paleolithic. The interrelationship between the Australopithecenes, Paranthropus, Homo habilis, and the various other Homo species that spread over the old world is really interesting even if we don't know exactly how the various successors to Homo habilis (H. erectus, H. ergaster, H. antecessor, etc.) related to each other.

Something I also find interesting: Our species appeared in Africa (between 100 and 300 thousand years ago) and displaced all the others as near as can be told right now; but several other very intelligent creatures came out of the H. erectus-type stock - the Neanderthals, H. Floresiensis... probably more we know nothing about... what I wonder the most is what made us so different that we drove the rest to extinction?

In any case, it looks like we are not descended from any of these old-world Homo erectus populations but they are still related to us with a common ancestor within the last 1.5-2 million years, and we came from a population LIKE them in Africa. Studying them is one of the closer ways we can come to studying our remote ancestors.

Edited March 15, 2009 by Torgo

[Aanica]

I'm actually a genetics major and astronomy minor, I'm taking archaeology because it is another way to understand our origins and because it is very interesting. The first third of the class was on human origins and history up to the upper paleolithic. The interrelationship between the Australopithecenes, Paranthropus, Homo habilis, and the various other Homo species that spread over the old world is really interesting even if we don't know exactly how the various successors to Homo habilis (H. erectus, H. ergaster, H. antecessor, etc.) related to each other.

Something I also find interesting: Our species appeared in Africa (between 100 and 300 thousand years ago) and displaced all the others as near as can be told right now; but several other very intelligent creatures came out of the H. erectus-type stock - the Neanderthals, H. Floresiensis... probably more we know nothing about... what I wonder the most is what made us so different that we drove the rest to extinction?

In any case, it looks like we are not descended from any of these old-world Homo erectus populations but they are still related to us with a common ancestor within the last 1.5-2 million years, and we came from a population LIKE them in Africa. Studying them is one of the closer ways we can come to studying our remote ancestors.

Sounds like you have found what you love I am a dbl Major now I already have a Psychology(clinical) degree and an engineering degree (civil) I worked a long while but I like the university life of research discovery, I have worked with Physics dept for a long time on a project in conglomeration with Ohio state and Cal Tech for our accelerator, My pursuit in History and Archaeology is available to me at no cost as a benefit so I am now working on a class at a time for that. It sounds like your interest will keep you satisfied I find that wonderful thing for young people..

[Piney]

The thing that intrigues me about the Asian H. Erectus is that they are the only hominid with shovel incisors. A trait only found among non-Chinese South East Asian peoples such as the Meo and Karen and among North American Indians (except the Athapaskan and Eskimo) yet many researchers claim they are a evolutionary "dead end".

Lapiche

[Torgo]

The thing that intrigues me about the Asian H. Erectus is that they are the only hominid with shovel incisors. A trait only found among non-Chinese South East Asian peoples such as the Meo and Karen and among North American Indians (except the Athapaskan and Eskimo) yet many researchers claim they are a evolutionary "dead end".

Lapiche

Could that be instead a case of convergent evolution to deal with similar situations? The genetic evidence points to the whole human species originating in one relatively small population something like 100-150 thousand years ago in Africa. One would expect that if the Asian hominids contributed to us the most recent common ancestor would be further back and there would be significantly more genetic variation among us - but there isn't. There is no genetic evidence of these populations contributing anything to our modern genetics.

[Piney]

Could that be instead a case of convergent evolution to deal with similar situations? The genetic evidence points to the whole human species originating in one relatively small population something like 100-150 thousand years ago in Africa. One would expect that if the Asian hominids contributed to us the most recent common ancestor would be further back and there would be significantly more genetic variation among us - but there isn't. There is no genetic evidence of these populations contributing anything to our modern genetics.

I've never encountered ayone who could give a explanation of their purpose. Except maybe to annoy dentists. I was told once they assist with eating fish and shellfish, but who knows?

Lapiche