First hominins to leave Africa were small-bodied early form of H. erectus, with smaller brains than later forms and carrying a typical African Oldowan stone tool culture

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Possibilities Raised by the Dmansi Discoveries

1. First hominins to leave Africa were small-bodied
   early form of H. erectus, with smaller brains
   than later forms and carrying a typical African
   Oldowan stone tool culture
2. These hominins had none of the adaptations
   hypothesized to be essential to hominin
   migration tall and relative large brains
3. Perhaps two migrations out of Africa at the time
   small-brained, short-statured Dmanisi hominins
   and large, robust body build of H. erectus
   populations of Java and China

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Homo Erectus from Indonesia

• Six sites in eastern Java, dating from 1.6 mya to
  1 mya, during the Early to Middle Pleistocene.
• The Ngandong individuals date from 27,000 ya.
• Homo erectus Soloiensus (Solo man) formerly
  classified as Homo Sapiens

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Homo erectus from China

• 40 male and female adults and children near
  Beijing, at Zhoukoudian, excavated beginning in
  1920s.
• 14 skullcaps, other cranial pieces, more than 100
  isolated teeth, and scattering of postcranial
  remains
• Formerly called Peking Man or Homo erectus
  Pekinensis

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European specimens

• Atapuerca region in northern Spain, 1.2 mya
• partial jaw with few teethclosely resembles
  Dmanisi fossils simple flake tools and animal
  bones
• Gran Dolina, dated to appx 850,000-780,000 ya
• Assigning the fossils to a particular species is
  problematic, based on the fragmentary nature of
  the remains
• Spanish paleoanthropologists place these hominins
  into a species called Homo antecessor

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Homo erectus Timeline
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Acheulian Biface

• Acheulean tools are typically found with Homo
  erectus remains.
• Lower to Middle Pleistocene
• A basic tool of the Acheulian tradition.
• Acheulian tool kits are common in Africa,
  southwest Asia, and western Europe, but theyre
  thought to be less common elsewhere.