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Re: 30,000 year old Homo erectus
Susan S. Chin (susansf@netcom.com)
Sun, 15 Dec 1996 22:27:04 GMT
Paul Kekai Manansala (pmanansala@csus.edu) wrote:
: I'm not sure how it supports the Out of Africa hypothesis unless there
: is some modification to the replacement concept. Wolpoff argues that
: certain non-adaptive traits are shared between Homo Erectus of Java
: and modern Australians. If we accept genetic exchange, which Wolpoff
: does, then the Out of Africa hypothesis might be supported but minus the
: total replacement theory. However, there was no mention of genetic
: exchange in the article, which still leaves the question open has to how
: modern humans in SE Asia/Pacific share certain non-selective
: cranial features with Java Man (Homo Erectus).
: Paul Kekai Manansala
Out of curiosity, what characters does Wolpoff feel are shared between
Javanese Homo erectus and modern Australian (aborigines I assume)?
Again, I haven't read the SCIENCE article yet, but in one of the other
newspaper articles they quoted one of the researchers as posing the
possibility of gene flow between erectus and sapiens in Java.
Such recent dates for Homo erectus, if they hold up, would weaken the
Multi-regionalist's position that modern Homo sapiens evolved
independently "in situ" from Homo erectus in each geographical region
where H. erectus are found. Thus, differences between geographic
populations of modern Homo sapiens go back to Homo erectus' time span.
With both Homo sapiens and erectus found synchronically in Java, this
makes it highly unlikely that modern Java populations could have
descended from the erectus population when Homo sapiens was already known
in the region 30,000 years ago. Chronologically it is very implausible
and certainly the less parsimonious view given the current evidence.
Susan
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susansf@netcom.com
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