Early Homo

• Homo habilis• 2.5-1.8 mya• contemporaneous with Australopithecus boisei

and Australopithecus robustus for at least 500,000 years.

• Then no fossils of either australopithecine; gone by c. 1.2 mya.

?

Homo habilis and “H. rudolfensis”

Olduwan stone culture: Homo habilischertflint

Homo erectus: 1.8 mBP – c. 27,000 BP

Homo erectus Homo sapiens

“Peking man”

A basic tool of Homo erectusAcheulian biface“hand axe”

1.5 mya - 250,000 ybpentire stone flakedAcheulian technique

Tool kit

Homo ergaster / Homo erectus sites

1.8 mya

Date tooconservative

1.8 mya and 27-53,000 ybp !

1.7 mya

Pleistocene Epoch

• 1.8 mya – 10,000 ya, then Holocene Epoch• Ice Ages• Alternation of warm and cold climates• Glaciers grow, move south• Water locked up in ice• Lowering sea level • Land bridges• Facilitated dispersal of Homo erectus of Africa at

least 1.8 mya

Glaciation -= land bridges

Relative brain size

Brain size / time relationship

Homo erectus

“Nariokotome boy”

Kenya, Africa1.6 mya5’6” tallEst. 6’ had hesurvived tomaturity

Homo erectus orH. ergaster

c. 8-9 years old8-9 day growth incrementsAlt.: 11 years old

Prominent epiphysealplates

1.5 mya: optical laser scan H. erectus trackway in Kenya (Ileret)

Au. afarensis