FOSSILS ATTRIBUTED TO GENUS HOMO: SOME GENERAL NOTES 591
HOMO ERECTUS AND ITS PUTATIVE
RELATIVES IN AFRICA AND ASIAFor historical reasons Homo erectus (as exemplified by the
type calotte from Trinil, Java) was for well over half a cen-
tury considered under linear evolutionary constructs to be
the standard-issue hominid “in the middle” between the
archaic bipeds on the one hand, and Neanderthals and
Homo sapiens on the other (see discussion in Tattersall,
1995). However, despite rear-guard actions (e.g., Asfaw et
al. 2002) that continue to obfuscate the identity of Homo
erectus (and of the myriad fossil forms crammed into it), it
has emerged clearly over the past couple of decades that
the human evolutionary picture was a great deal more
complex than was envisaged for most of the twentieth
century, and that Homo erectus, in the strict sense, was ac-
tually a terminal east Asian development (e.g., Tattersall,
1997; Tattersall and Schwartz, 2000). Nonetheless, many
paleoanthropologists continue to lump into Homo erectus a
diverse assortment of fossils from both Europe and
Africa; and in this brief overview, we look at this larger
grouping of fossils (notably including forms from eastern
Africa as well as from Asia) to suggest areas where future
systematic revision might be productive. For a more ex-
tended discussion of the features enumerated below, see
Schwartz and Tattersall (2000a).
The species represented by the Trinil calotte is
highly autapomorphic in a variety of features, which in-
clude the extremely narrow, shelf-like, and laterally flar-
ing supraorbital region that runs directly into the low,
long frontal plane with midline keeling; short, inwardly
tilted cranial walls bordered by faint, low temporal
lines; posterior distension of its narrow nuchal angle
along a wide, horizontal, torus-like structure; and so
forth. The calottes from the nearby Sangiran sites
mostly fit quite comfortably into this morph, and reveal
an additional internal apomorphy: the sigmoid sinus
bifurcates along the back of the petrosal into one
branch that runs horizontally along the petrosal body,
and another that descends behind it in the direction of
the foramen magnum. In addition, the medial petrosal
wall is fissured, another unique feature. The Ngandong
crania, from more recent deposits also in eastern Java,
are less easy to interpret; for, although they bear supra-
orbital resemblances to the Trinil and Sangiran speci-
mens, they have tall and quite narrow cranial vaults,
and their sigmoid sinuses do not arborize. Interestingly,
the Zhoukoudian specimens from northeastern China
did not show this latter intracranial apomorphy, either
(Weidenreich, 1943), and they additionally possessed
other differences in cranial morphology from that of
the TriniVSangiran hominids.
In general, the hominids reported from eastern
Asia make an interesting assemblage, with more mor-
phological variety than has traditionally been recog-
nized. There is no question about the hominid status
of most of them; but, at the same time, it appears pos-
sible that many reported hominid teeth and jaw frag-
ments from this region may, in fact, not be hominid.
Such specimens include many of the isolated teeth
from Trinil, Sangiran, Zhoukoudian and Vietnam (see
Schwartz et al., 1995; Grine and Franzen, 1994; and
Hooijer, 1948), and also some of the jaw fragments
from Sangiran (see this volume). Rather, such Asian
specimens may provide a tantalizing glimpse of the
former existence of a relatively large “orangutan clade.”
On the other hand, the putatively very early incisor
from Longgupo does appear to be hominid (although
of indeterminate species status), although the jaw frag-
ment from the same site might better be characterized
as “hominoid” (Schwartz and Tattersall, 1996b).
A variety of fossil hominid cranial specimens from
eastern Africa has been referred, at one time or an-
other, to Homo erectus. Also attributed corporately to
Homo ergaster (a species based on a mandible: KNM-
ER 992), these fossils include the skull (and postcra-
nium) KNM-WT 15000, the cranium KNM-ER
3733, the calvaria ER 3883, the partial cranium ER
3732, and a variety of more fragmentary specimens.
The OH 9 partial calvaria from Olduvai Gorge Bed I1
also seems to be affiliated in some way with this group,
although exactly where it fits is not evident. It does,
however, appear to match morphologically in many
respects with the newly announced “Homo erectus” cra-
nium from Daka, in Ethiopia (Asfaw et al., 2002), and
we will remark further on the apparent distinctive
morph represented by this pair of fossils in Volume 3
of this series.
Meanwhile, the obvious starting point in the ana-
lysis of this east African assemblage is the well-
preserved 3733, which is generally taken as the classic
exemplar of adult Homo ergaster (or “African Homo
erectus”). In this cranium, the brows arc independently
over each orbit and project both forward and up,
forming a distinct posttoral sulcus in front of a steep
frontal rise that peaks quite far forward; posteriorly,
the skull is relatively taller than it is wide; the side
walls of the vault are curved; and the temporal lines