Homo Fossil timeline
Bob Keeter (b_keeter@owens.ridgecrest.ca.us)
15 Sep 1996 00:40:06 GMT
Not to get into the "who begat who" line of logic
concerning early man, but lets talk about the
chronology of the fossils. I have seen some timelines
for Europe that progress from a Homo Erectus, through
Neanderthals, and early modern to modern man. If I
have it straight, the Neanderthal is largely a artifact
of Europe and the Near East, with Erectus covering the
Pleistoscene in Asia and Africa with "modern man"
coming earlier in Africa and quickly showing up on
the European and Asian land mass.
Is this close? Now to get into the begatting!
Was there a "robust" Erectus in Asia that matched the
Neanderthal period?
Why would the Neanderthal physiology have been limited to
Europe and near east when the climatic changes that
supposedly favored the physique were considerably more
widespread? (Were there central/east Asian Neanderthals?
I think not?)
What are the morphological markers for Erectus vs Neanderthal
vs the different current races? Is it possible that the
European racial traits may have more in common with the
neanderthal whereas the Asian racial traits may be more
in common with the Erectus fossils? I am not implying that
the Mongoloid race is Homo Erectus, just wondering if, of
the characteristic traits of the earlier homo fossils, there
may be any grouping of these traits among modern man.
I know that some of this has been discussed many times, but
I would like to get a fresh discussion based on some of the
more recent discoveries (i.e. Neanderthals that are only 30k yrs
old, etc)
Thanks
bk
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