Asian Homo Erectus In The News
AFP - Tuesday, August 7 02:59 am
CHICAGO (AFP) - A new analysis of the dental fossils of human ancestors suggests that Asian populations played a larger role than Africans in colonizing Europe millions of years ago, said a study released Monday.
The findings challenge the prevailing "Out of Africa" theory, which holds that anatomically modern man first arose from one point in Africa and fanned out to conquer the globe, and bolsters the notion that Homo sapiens evolved from different populations in different parts of the globe.
The "Out of Africa" scenario has been underpinned since 1987 by genetic studies based mainly on the rate of mutations in mitochondrial DNA, a cell material inherited from the maternal line of ancestry. But for this study, European researchers opted to study the tooth fossil record of modern man's ancestors because of their high component of genetic expression.
The investigators examined the shapes of more than 5,000 teeth from human ancestors from Africa, Asia and Europe dating back millions of years. They found that European teeth had more Asian features than African ones. They also noted that the continuity of the Eurasian dental pattern from the Early Pleistocene until the appearance of Upper Pleistocene Neanderthals suggests that the evolutionary courses of the Eurasian and African continents were relatively independent for a long period. "The history of human populations in Eurasia may not have been the result of a few high-impact replacement waves of dispersals from Africa, but a much more complex puzzle of dispersals and contacts among populations within and outside continents," the researchers wrote.
"In the light of these results, we propose that Asia has played an important role in the colonization of Europe, and that future studies on this issue are obliged to pay serious attention to the 'unknown' continent."
The paper was written by researchers at Spain's national center for research into human evolution in Burgos and appears in the journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Comment-
"It's amazing how journalists can draw a conclusion that's factually different than the quotes they use in the article. This research doesn't seem to dispute OoA but refine it very slightly. We already know that peoples move around, so people moving to Asia first and then moving to Europe isn't exactly a revolutionary suggestion. Given how often Asian peoples moved into Europe historically (Mongols, Turks, Huns, Avars, etc.), it's expected that there would have been pre-historic migrations west from Central Asia. They still came from Africa originally. Moving from New York to Chicago in 1950 doesn't mean you weren't born in Pitsburgh in 1920."
Joe's response:
I think you are over simplifying. The study is talking millions of years ago, not thousands. The major debate has been the mainstream view that the homo erectus was totally wiped out by homo sapien vs the multi-regional viewpoint, wherein homo erectus was absorbed and contributed some traits to modern homo sapien. It is interesting that the asian specimens almost always show the evolutionarily "transitory" versions of hominids.
The classification of the first homo erectus found in south east asia is still debated by some- it's either the earliest homo erectus or the most advanced homo habilis or austrolepithecine. The most advanced homo erectus/ergaster is found also in southeast asia, and was once considered an early homo sapien. African homo sapien was supposed to have made it out of Africa 50,000 years ago, but he shows up in Australia 60,000 years ago with a few traits in common with homo erectus soloensis (which may have survived in southeast asia until 27,000 years ago). The out of africa theory has never explained how the 950 - 1100 cc brain of ergaster and antecedent suddenly jumped to 1400 in heidelbergensis and then 1600 in neanderthal. Asian homo erectus didn't have to jump much at all, already having a 1,200 to 1,300 cc brain at the time.
I have often entertained the theory that the vast continent of Sundaland was the perfect condition for the development of homo sapien. Before the last glacial maximum, south east asian homo erectus had been isolated for quite some time. Then the lowering sea levels allowed the species to spread into mainland asia. Shortly thereafter, heidelbergensis appears in the middle east, the first homo sapien.
The middle east would have been the perfect melting point between erectus, ergaster, and antecedent. And if the tall ergaster and the smart erectus had a child, it would look alot like the tall, smart heidelbergensis.
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