ISSN:
1824-310X
Keywords:
Human Fossil
;
Ecologic Events
;
Early Pleistocene
;
Eurasian Occupation
;
Homo sapiens
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Biology
Notes:
Abstract The abundance of early fossil humans in African sites ceases at dates around 1.3MaBP; there is almost none until nearly 0.8MaBP. Again these are scarce until less than 0.5 Ma. Most of Homo erectus fossils in Java are dated between c.1.3 and 0.70Ma; just a few fossil humans are known in Eurasia for this time span. Questions arise on eventual environmental constraints, that may have influenced evolutionary crises of human populations, but also on geographic conditions adverse to fossilization processes and/or site formation. Records on climate variables, vegetation, sea level, sedimentary conditions and tectonic behavior in regions of the Old World are collected, and correlation traced back in time slices. Continental accretion is related to end of sedimentation in African basins; repeated compressive tectonic activity negatively affected preservation of both fossils and occupation sites widely, before and immediately after the M/B reversal. Lithic artefact assemblages, although derived, are understood as evidence of human occupation in the studied interval. Human populations are exspected to be affected by environmental changes, small, and scattered. Origin of Homo sapeins and divergence of preneandertalians are driven back to those times. Ancestorship to the latter is found probably in African fossils of that time span. Modern traits found in the Atapuerca-TD6 sample and the preceeding considerations urge research on humans and their movements intra- and intercontinental around 1 MaBP.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02436234
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