140,000-Year-Old Bones Reveal Clues About Behavior of Extinct Human Species

JAVA, INDONESIA—Homo erectus, modern humans' archaic hominin relative, was the first human species to migrate out of Africa. One of the places they eventually settled was in Southeast Asia, as H. erectus fossils found on the island of Java date back 1.6 million years. Archaeologists working there recently gained new insight into the way these early humans lived, according to a statement released by Leiden University. Dredging operations in the Madura Strait recovered two fragments of 140,000-year-old H. erectus skull among the fossilized remains of 36 vertebrate species. This now-submerged region was once part of a landmass called Sundaland, which connected the Indonesian archipelago to the Asian mainland during the last Ice Age. These fossils—the first thathave ever been retrieved from the seafloor—have provided researchers with important new information about H. erectus’ behavior. For instance, the finds demonstrate how the Javanese H. erectus species spread from the highlands into the surrounding lowlands when sea levels were lower. At this time, Sundaland would have provided ample fresh water, shellfish, fish, edible plants, seeds, and fruit year-round. The study also revealed evidence of previously unknown behavioral anomalies, such as the ability to hunt strong healthy bovids, which suggests that the population living there may have even had contact with other human cousins. “We didn’t find this in the earlier Homo erectus population on Java, but do know it from more modern human species of the Asian mainland,” said archaeologist Harold Berghuis. “Homo erectus may have copied this practice from these populations. This suggests there may have been contact between these hominin groups, or even genetic exchange.” Read the original scholarly article about this research in Quaternary Environments and Humans. To read about stone ancestor monuments across the Indonesian archipelago, go to "Java's Megalithic Mountain."