Whence Homo floresiensis ? - The Fossil Chronicles - page 170

to place WT 15K and other fragmentary specimens that resemble it in
another species, Homo ergaster (“worker man”) . 45 I tend to view WT 15K
as an early African variant of Homo erectus that had small chewing teeth
and a less specialized cranium than his Asian cousins who were discov-
ered in 1891 on the island of Java by Eugène Dubois. 46
The Homo erectus fossils from Java have been of particular interest
in the discussions about Homo floresiensis, because the individuals they
represent may have lived as long ago as 1.8 million years just a couple of
islands away from Flores. There is also some indication that Homo erectus
may have survived on Java until as recently as 27,000 years ago, well
after the arrival of Homo sapiens in the region. 47 This means that Homo
erectus was in Java at the time the oldest known stone tools were being
produced on Flores. 48
Unfortunately, little is known about the general body build of Homo
erectus from Java, even though Dubois believed that a modern-looking
femur and a very primitive-looking Pithecanthropus skullcap (Trinil 2)
were from the same individual. Doubt was cast on this suggestion in 1932,
however, when fragments from four other Pithecanthropus femurs started
turning up in the materials that Dubois had collected. Science writer Pat
Shipman's comments about this are particularly intriguing:
Dubois argued that the new bones were from other individuals, now repre-
sented by two new but incomplete left femurs and two new but also incom-
plete right femurs. More to the point, all betrayed the very same features
that had initially convinced Dubois that the femur of P.e. [Pithecanthropus
erectus] was distinctly different from that of Man. These anatomical differences,
he hypothesized, were due to a more tree-climbing habit in P.e., although its primary
means of movement was walking upright on the ground . 49 [emphasis mine]
Although WT 15K, from Africa, lacked specializations associated with
spending time in trees (except, perhaps, a sturdy shoulder), more infor-
mation is needed to be sure about his cousins from Indonesia. What we
need, of course, is a relatively complete Homo erectus skeleton from Java.
Unfortunately, one has yet to turn up.
Fossilized skeletons are few and far between, but they tell a lot. As