The Mystery Ape of Pleistocene Asia [ from Longgupo in Sichuan province ]

Fossil finds of early humans in southeast Asia may actually be the remains of an unknown ape. Russell Ciochon says that many palaeoanthropologists -- including himself -- have been mistaken. Fourteen years ago, a Nature paper by my colleagues and I described a 1.9-million-year-old human jaw fragment from Longgupo in Sichuan province, China1. The ancient date in itself was spectacular. Previous evidence had suggested that human ancestors arrived in east Asia from Africa about 1 million years ago, in the form of Homo erectus. Longgupo nearly doubled that estimate. But even more exciting -- and contentious -- was our claim that the jaw was related to H. habilis, a species of distinctly African origin. If this descendant of H. habilis had arrived so early into southeast Asia, then it probably gave rise to H. erectus in the Far East, rather than H. erectus itself sweeping west to east... now, in light of new evidence from across southeast Asia and after a decade of my own field research in Java, I have changed my mind. Not everyone may agree; such classifications are always open to interpretation. But I am now convinced that the Longgupo fossil and others like it do not represent a pre-erectus human, but rather one or more mystery apes indigenous to southeast Asia's Pleistocene primal forest... There was no pre-erectus species in southeast Asia after all.

Early Homo and associated artefacts from Asia [ Out of Africa and China? ]
Nature | 16 November 1995 | Wanpo, Ciochon, Yumin, Larick, Qiren, Schwarcz, Yonge, de Vos & Rink
Posted on 08/11/2006 10:35:51 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1681940/posts

Rewriting ‘Out of Africa’ theory [ 1.83 million years ago in Malaysia ]
New Straits Times Online | Friday, January 30, 2009 | Melissa Darlyne Chow
Posted on 01/30/2009 9:15:11 PM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2175466/posts

"Just this year, claims for a pre-erectus African in Asia have also surfaced to explain the evolution of Indonesia's Homo floresiensis, popularly known as the Liang Bua 'hobbit'. Discovered in 2003, and dated to just 95,000 to 17,000 years ago, the Liang Bua skeleton is a diminutive species significantly different from all other known humans. The discoverers proposed that the diminutive H. floresiensis evolved from a southeast Asian H. erectus group that became isolated on Flores: faced with limited resources, the erectus group dwarfed to match the small-island conditions. However, recent studies of Liang Bua wrist and foot bones reveal primitive anatomies reminiscent of H. habilis or Australopithecus, again leading some to propose a pre-erectus African origin for the species. The problem is that no comparable wrist or foot bones are known for H. erectus, making it impossible at this time to exclude a local variant of H. erectus as the ancestor of the Liang Bua 'hobbit'."

Mike Morwood, the archaeologist who excavated the Hobbits, says that the Hobbits most closely resembles the people in the article below:

Strangers In A New Land

Image: JOHN GURCHE PORTRAIT OF A PIONEER With a brain half the size of a modern one and a brow reminiscent of Homo habilis, this hominid is one of the most primitive members of our genus on record. Paleoartist John Gurche reconstructed this 1.75-million-year-old explorer from a nearly complete teenage H. erectus skull and associated mandible found in Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia. The background figures derive from two partial crania recovered at the site.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic ·
	Gods Graves Glyphs	Of particular interest to Blam... To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
·Dogpile · Archaeologica · ArchaeoBlog · Archaeology · Biblical Archaeology Society · · Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·