Peter Nyikos (sci.bio.paleontology) wrote:
What's missing is a "smoking gun" of Asian littoral fossils with hominids more human-like than African present-day apes.
"missing", Peter??
Not missing at all, to the contrary:
early-Pleistocene H.erectus at Java was (near)littoral:
e.g. my book p.220:
-- "Het Mojokerto-kind (~1,8 Ma?) kwam uit een brede delta vol zeepokken, koralen, zee- en zoetwaterschelpen wijzend op mangroves, strand en moddervlaktes, met fossiele botten van olifanten, neushoorns en nijlpaarden, zwijnen, tapirs, buffels en
antilopes, tijgers, hondachtigen en apen. (barnacles & corals)
-- Het schedeldak en dijbot van Trinil lagen volgens José Joordens bij eetbare zoetwaterschelpen (Pseudodon en Elongaria).
-- En Sangiran-17 (~1,6 Ma?), de meest intacte schedel op Java, kwam uit een brakwatermoeras aan de kust." (brackish marsh near the coast)
All very littoral!!
H.erectus pachy-osteo-sclerotic (POS) is *exclusively* seen in slow+shallow-diving tetrapods:
H.erectus dived mostly for shellfish: shell engravings (google "Joordens Munro"), stone tools, larger brain (DHA...), platycephaly, platypelloidy, platymeria, ext.nose, occipital POS (back-floating), human rudiments: handiness, fur loss, hair
distribution, SC fat, hyperventilation, voluntary breathing, flat feet, etc.etc.
...
We must discern our different evolutionary phases:
very schematically 4 phases IMO:
25? Ma +-"monkey"like cf Cercopithecoidea & Platyrrhini = arboreal: mostly pronograde, 4-handed, tail+
2.5? Ma +-"ape"like Hominoidea cf australopiths-apes = aquarboreal (google): more orthograde, broad build, tail-loss
250? ka "aq.ape"like: H.erectus = (parttime)shellfish-diving: brain+, pachyosteoscl., Ind.Ocean-shores
<250? ka: H.sapiens = predom.walking (soon extinct?)
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