Has any one have any knowledge of the evolution and dispersal of Homo erectus?

Question

Has any one have any knowledge of the evolution and dispersal of Homo erectus?

Answer 1

Homo erectus is believed to have evolved mostly in Asia but some also suggest some of the early African H. ergaster were H. erectus.  H. erectus was a very varied species.  The early H. erectus in Asia was not technological. About a million years ago, a very different version of H. erectus spread throughout Asia.  I think about 1.8 million years ago a very primitive H. erectus moved into China and Java (and probably surrounding areas as well).  Ones found in Indonesia at Sangiran were very large and apparently not technological.  I would guess that erectus evolved from Homo habilis.  It probably didn't evolve into humans in my opinion.  It lived to at least 20,000 years ago in Java.  Another hominid branch, Homo rudolphensis may have evolved into H. ergaster, to H. heidelbergensis to modern man.  Unfortunately, there are huge gaps in our knowledge.

Answer 2

What you are questioning here is not only the Pylogeny of Homo with a specific interest in Homo erectus, but also the geographical spread over this same period of time.  The contemporary evidence predicts that Homo erectus migrated around the globe and eventually evolved into antecessor in europe, which went extinct, and into heidelbergensis. Heidelbergensis is accredited with evolving into Homo neanderthalensis and anatomically modern Homo sapiens. This same evidence suggests that Homo floresiensis evolved from Homo erectus independently and were able to remain successful in their  South East Asian environment until the arrival of Homo sapiens. Here is a pylogeny that not only shows this relationship of evolution over time, but also demonstrates this spread over geographic regions:

http://users.static.freeblog.hu/c/r/i/cr...

I'm quite happy with the way that this phylogeny shows erectus as it seems to be very consistent with the known archaeological evidence and it even includes the lesser mentioned Homo floresiensis.  The diagram could be more clear if they also wrote erectus on the right hand side between ergaster and heidelbergensis, but otherwise it is a job well done and consistant with the majority of Homo phlogenies well also providing this geographic perspective.  Here are some phylogenies that you may compare it to:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v42...

http://www.archaeologyinfo.com/images/ph...

http://www.accessexcellence.org/BF/bf02/...

This phyogeny here: http://www.antiquityofman.com/images/mod... is an excerpt from a book and attempts to give a similar geographic perspective where the left side is Europe, the center is Africa and the right is Asia.  Then there are two diagrams side by side, but the one on the right has a clearly delineated sketch of Homo evolution including the elongated perseverance of erectus in Asia, but without specifying Homo floresiensis as the end of the line of Asian erectus evolution before being replaced by Homo sapiens.

Some other phyogenies rearrange it a bit, or create different classifications for some fossil findings. This example replaces heidlebergensis with African archaics and Eurasian archaics:

http://content.answers.com/main/content/... this change obviously effects what Homo erectus supposedly evolves into.

Others Phylogenies completely overgeneralize and skip some offshoots and evolutionary steps all together. This example does not just skip the frequently overlooked Homo antecessor, but also completely ignores the existence of Homo heidelbergensis and its significance all together and actually makes the model look a bit funny with the large gap inbetween Homo erectus and the introduction of neanderthal and sapiens:

http://www.micro.utexas.edu/courses/levi... Because of such overgeneralized phylogenies, like this one, christian "missing link" arguments are fueled, but those who have a better knowledge of the archaeological finds know that a phylogeny like this one is just oversimplified.

Anyways, the first link that I provided is a good visualization of what was going on before, during and after erectus including the predescessors, descendants and their geographic spread.  Truly, Erectus was extremely well adapted to their environments (very generalized to have spread so far and in so many environments) at that time.  Besides Modern Homo sapiens no other Homo species has found as much success as erectus.

Answer 3

Well, there's this site, it covers Homo-Sapiens, and it at least a probable pattern of dispersal for other genus as well.

http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journe...

Answer 4

I hate the b******s next door.