Why Asian Homo erectus or its descendants never made it to the Americas?

Question

Barring multi-regionalist theories which may argue that some H. s. sapiens which eventually migrated to the Americas in the last 20k or so years *are* descendants of Asian H. erectus, why was Homo erectus unsuccessful in venturing into the American continents during its >500k year stay in East and Southeast Asia? In contrast, why was Europe successfully colonized by other species of Homo, e.g., H. heidelbergensis and H. neanderthalensis? The Beringian land bridge should have been open on several occasions. And if the weather there was prohibitively cold, would that not have been sufficient an ecological imperative to drive new technologies and/or new speciation events from H. erectus, much like the Saharan pump? Did the Old World/New World barrier permit the crossing of other terrestrial species? If so, how did the other genera beat Homo in this endeavor?

Answer 1

Perhaps they did.  Someone found a brow-ridge in Mexico a few years ago that supposedly looked very much like it came from erectus.

Some Asian erectus may have never developed technology or fire.  They may have split early from our lineage and been far more primitive than paleontologists think.  Erectus cohabited with habilis 1.5 million years ago.  That opens up the question how old is erectus that it could have a creature cohabitating shortly after it was supposed to have evolved into it.  Either erectus is older or it takes very little time for two species of hominids to form.  Either reason opens up the likely possibility that some of the Asian erectus were more primitive, non-technological than commonly assumed.  The reason they were assumed to be technological could be because there was a technological hominid living with them like erectus lived with habilis.  If that were true then some of the giant hairy hominids seen in the world, including America could be descendants of one of the Asian erectus.  If they were technologically primitive and didn't develop cold adaptation, then they simply couldn't make the journey.  Recent tooth analysis indicates the very likely possibility of there being a more primitive erectus according to Dr.  Morwood's book "A New Human".

Primitive erectus?

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Clearly modern man had a special talent for making sophisticated tools and that allowed us to live in the arctic.  Neanderthal may not have been quite that adept.  

A few years ago, many thought of erectus and ergaster as different species.  A recent specimen had features of both so it became widely assumed they are all the same species.  With the more recent find of habilis cohabiting with erectus, that assumption is more dubious as it might be a third species or a hybrid.

Answer 2

Zhoukoudu China appears to be the closest Homo erectus came to the Americas. Some of the European finds are further North but then Europe is warmed by the Gulf Stream.

The Calico site is California has been presented as a Homo erectus occupation. Louis Leaky visited the site and stated that the tools, if found in Africa would be accepted a made by Homo erectus or others.

However, they "tools" could also be geo-artifacts. Rocks that have been broken by natural events. Further, none of the tools are found in situ. They have all been water rolled.Finally, the "tools" are made from the local stone. Most tool makers are willing to travel to get the good stone and will carry it back.

The Bering Land Bridge has appeared and sunk several times. What you need to keep in mind is that when the bridge is there, it's during periods of heavy glacier building. The route South would be blocked by large expanses of ice.

Answer 3

They were walking the other way. Have you seen Asia it's huge!

Answer 4

what?!

Answer 5

the so called land bridge theory is not correct in the direction in which humans traveled . they came from the Americas ,went into Asia following the animals and the sun. so we Indians believe.

Answer 6

If they indeed did not, some reasons could be that they did not follow reindeer herds to support their lifestyle, or perhaps they did not advance to the point of taking their chances at rafting, or any type of complex sailing...

The fact that Mongoloid/Native Americans did squeeze through that narrow "window", on at least several occasions, could be accidental, or just sheer luck!