PLIOCENEPLEISTOCENE Plio-Pleistocene MIOCENE ? Homo erectus Distribution Throughout Africa from 1.8 Ma First hominin to appear outside of Africa Appears in Asia ca. 1.8 Ma ? Adapted to both tropical and temperate Climates Oldowan ChopperAcheulian Biface or Handaxe OLDUVAI GORGE Olorgesailie (Kenya) 1.2 0.05 Ma Acheulean Handaxes Butchered fauna ! Theropithecus oswaldi Elephas recki Dmanisi (Republic of Georgia) 1.8 MA (2 1.5 Ma) Oldowan-type tools !! 3 hominid skulls, misc. jaws, etc. lots of fauna & artifacts NEW SKULL DISCOVERED in situ ! D 2282 JAVA (Southeast Asia) Sangiran s G.H.R. von Koeningswald Ngandong s 53, ,000 BP Zhoukoudian (Main Cave) Sinanthropus pekinensis Davidson Black Skull 5 -- Individual H Zhoukoudian Pithecanthropus Meganthropus Sinanthropus Zhoukoudian Main Cave artifacts Homo erectus Culture Acheulean Industry (exc East Asia) Bifacial hand axes and cleavers Diversified tool kits (?Cooperative) hunting of big-game animals evidence for simple shelters earliest occupation of cave sites evidence for controlled use of fire Open question: language Anatomical Insights Thorax shape: hunting Basicranial flexion: language Early Hominid Lifeways Reconstructing behavior Climatic/environmental changes Diet Meat eating Food sharing Foraging Social organization Sexual division of labor Home bases? ANALOGUES Chimps: Similar brain size to australopithecines Precursor traits to human societies Tools, Hunting, Food Sharing Contemporary foragers: Fully modern anatomically and culturally What features represent historical universals? Reconstructing ecology The Limits of Analogy Behavior does not fossilize Chimp culture is population specific Human foragers are not living fossils Stone Age Economics Homo erectus/ergaster Homo sapiens Suite of intermediate characters previously archaic H. sapiens or pre-sapiens oversimplifies the evolutionary picture Transitional Weidenreich (1943) & Coon (1962) Saw independent line to modern humans P. robustusP. erectusH. soloensisH. sapiens (Wadjak) Archaic Homo sapiens Archaic H. sapiens H. erectus Africa EuropeAsia AMH 600 ka 500 ka 300 ka archaic Homo sapiens by start of Middle Pleistocene ( Ma) H. erectus firmly established Africa Tropical Asia Temperate Asia Temperate Europe replaced by archaic Homo sapiens now referred to Homo heidelbergensis Homo heidelbergensis Mauer Jaw massive mandible -- both primitive (robust) & derived (small molars) was for a long time the oldest European fossil type specimen ca. 500,000 years old Mauer Jaw (W. Germany) Slightly larger more globular braincase ( cm 3 ) steeper forehead and rounded back of skull skull broadest higher up thinner skull bones, reduced musculature mandible and face reduced, smaller molars Old World Distribution 800,000 200,000 years ago Homo heidelbergensis Arago, 21, France Kabwe, Zambia Petralona, Greece Bodo, Ethiopia Homo heidelbergensis Figure Found Ka 1300 cc (largest transitional in Far East) contemporaneous with H. erectus at Zhoukoudian Figure 13.20c Figure 13.20b