Homo Erectus Essay -- Science Ancestry Science Essays

Homo Erectus In the quest to explain human origins it is necessary to find a species that bridges modern man (Homo sapiens) with the apes. To fill this gap evolutionists have set forth Homo erectus, who lived approximately 400,000 to 1.6 million years ago (Johanson and Shreeve1989). Although the distinctions are somewhat vague, below the neck, Homo sapiens and Homo erectus are practically Identical and Homo erectus was responsible for pioneering the use of standard tools (such as the hand axe), big-game hunting, and the use of fire (Johanson and Shreeve1989). You may know Homo erectus as "Java man" or "Peking man"( Johanson and Shreeve 1989). Erectus was low of brow, thick of bone, endowed with a brain larger than that of its ancestors but decidedly more simian than its descendants' (Washburn, McCown 1972). "Emerging in East Africa about a million and a half years ago, Homo erectus lived in the time Frame of 500,000 - 100,000 B.C. The geographical range in which Homo erectus lived in was Africa, Asia, Europe, and Oceania" (Johanson and Shreeve 1989). Homo erectus's brain, twice as large as that of Australopithecus, provided this new species with even more intelligence (Johanson and Shreeve1989). The climate during this time period varied greatly, with alternating periods of warm and cold and glaciers appearing during the cold eras(Johanson and Shreeve1989). The intelligence of erectus was helpful in survival, and Homo erectus had specific strategies for more efficient hunting. PHYSICAL FEATURES The most prominent difference between Homo erectus and previous species of hominids is the increase in cranial capacity (Washburn, McCown 1972). Over the course of Homo erectus' existence, the cranial capacity increased fr... ...mber 14, 1998 1998 Website: www.cruzio.com/~cscp/econ.htm, accessed November 14, 1998 1998 Website: www.emporium.turnpike.net/C/cs/emhe.htm, accessed November 12, 1998 1998 Website: www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/a_erectus.html, accessed November 11, 1998 Johanson and Shreeve. 1989 Lucy's Child. Morrow. p. 221 Lieberman,-Leonard; Jackson,-Fatimah-Linda-C 1995 Race and Three Models of Human Origin p.231-242 Parker,-Sue-Taylor 1985 A Social-Technological Model for the Evolution of Language;Current-Anthropology. p 269 Washburn,-S.-L.; McCown,-E.-R. 1972Evolution of Human Behavior, p163-170. Feder,-Kenneth-L. 1990Piltdown, Paradigms, and the Paranormal, p 397-402 Zihlman,-Adrienne-L. 1978Women in Evolution, Part II; Subsistence and Social Organization among Early Hominids p 4-20.