Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 25 February 1994:
Vol. 263. no. 5150, pp. 1118 - 1121
DOI: 10.1126/science.8108729
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Science, Vol 263, Issue 5150, 1118-1121
Copyright © 1994 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

articles

Age of the earliest known hominids in Java, Indonesia

CC Swisher 3rd, GH Curtis, T Jacob, AG Getty, A Suprijo, and Widiasmoro

Geochronology Center, Institute of Human Origins, Berkeley, CA 94709.

40Ar/39Ar laser-incremental heating of hornblende separated from pumice recovered at two hominid sites in Java, Indonesia, has yielded well-defined plateaus with weighted mean ages of 1.81 +/- 0.04 and 1.66 +/- 0.04 million years ago (Ma). The hominid fossils, a juvenile calvaria of Pithecanthropus and a partial face and cranial fragments of Meganthropus, commonly considered part of the Asian Homo erectus hypodigm, are at least 0.6 million years older than fossils referred to as Homo erectus (OH-9) from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, and comparable in age with the oldest Koobi Fora Homo cf. erectus (Homo ergaster) in Kenya. These ages lend further credence to the view that Homo erectus may have evolved outside of Africa. If the ancestor of Homo erectus ventured out of Africa before 1.8 Ma, the dispersal would have predated the advent of the Acheulean culture at 1.4 Ma, possibly explaining the absence of these characteristic stone cleavers and hand axes in East Asia.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Detecting Ancient Admixture and Estimating Demographic Parameters in Multiple Human Populations.
J. D. Wall, K. E. Lohmueller, and V. Plagnol (2009)
Mol. Biol. Evol. 26, 1823-1827
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A new Homo erectus (Zhoukoudian V) brain endocast from China.
X. Wu, L. A. Schepartz, and W. Liu (2009)
Proc R Soc B
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Quaternary science 2007: a 50-year retrospective.
M. Walker and J. Lowe (2007)
Journal of the Geological Society 164, 1073-1092
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Hominin responses to Pleistocene environmental change in Arabia and South Asia.
M. D. Petraglia (2005)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 247, 305-319
   Abstract »    PDF »
The pattern of evolution in Pleistocene human brain size.
(2003)
Paleobiology 29, 186-196
When did hominids first leave Africa?: New high-resolution magnetostratigraphy from the Erk-el-Ahmar Formation, Israel.
H. Ron and S. Levi (2001)
Geology 29, 887-890
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Paleolithic Technology and Human Evolution.
S. H. Ambrose (2001)
Science 291, 1748-1753
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Thermal ionization mass spectrometry U-series dating of a hominid site near Nanjing, China.
J.-x. Zhao, K. Hu, K. D. Collerson, and H.-k. Xu (2001)
Geology 29, 27-30
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Dating the origin of modern humans.
C. B. Stringer (2001)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 190, 265-274
   Abstract »    PDF »
Detecting Ancient Admixture in Humans Using Sequence Polymorphism Data.
J. D. Wall (2000)
Genetics 154, 1271-1279
   Abstract »    Full Text »
The evolution of primate malaria parasites based on the gene encoding cytochrome b from the linear mitochondrial genome.
A. A. Escalante, D. E. Freeland, W. E. Collins, and A. A. Lal (1998)
PNAS 95, 8124-8129
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Grandmothering, menopause, and the evolution of human life histories.
K. Hawkes, J. F. O'Connell, N. G. B. Jones, H. Alvarez, and E. L. Charnov (1998)
PNAS 95, 1336-1339
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Human Origins: Asian Hominids Grow Older.
E. Culotta (1995)
Science 270, 1116-1117
   Abstract »    PDF »
Plio-Pleistocene African Climate.
P. B. deMenocal (1995)
Science 270, 53-59
   Abstract »    PDF »
Lower Pleistocene hominids and artifacts from Atapuerca-TD6 (Spain).
E Carbonell, J. Bermudez de Castro, J. Arsuaga, J. Diez, A Rosas, G Cuenca-Bescos, R Sala, M Mosquera, and X. Rodriguez (1995)
Science 269, 826-830
   Abstract »    PDF »
Response.
C. C. Swisher III (1994)
Science 266, 1727
   PDF »
African Homo erectus: old radiometric ages and young Oldowan assemblages in the Middle Awash Valley, Ethiopia.
J. Clark, J de Heinzelin, K. Schick, W. Hart, T. White, G WoldeGabriel, R. Walter, G Suwa, B Asfaw, E Vrba, et al. (1994)
Science 264, 1907-1910
   Abstract »    PDF »
Rewriting--and redating--prehistory.
A Gibbons (1994)
Science 263, 1087-1088
   PDF »
Early Pleistocene 40Ar/39Ar ages for Bapang Formation hominins, Central Jawa, Indonesia.
R. Larick, R. L. Ciochon, Y. Zaim, Sudijono, Suminto, Y. Rizal, F. Aziz, M. Reagan, and M. Heizler (2001)
PNAS 98, 4866-4871
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Early human occupation of Western Europe: Paleomagnetic dates for two paleolithic sites in Spain.
O. Oms, J. M. Pares, B. Martinez-Navarro, J. Agusti, I. Toro, G. Martinez-Fernandez, and A. Turq (2000)
PNAS 97, 10666-10670
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)