homo erectus

Recently, we reported on one of those Darwinian morality tales, according to which homo erectus died out because he was lazy, compared to the rest of us. Ann Gauger, pointed out that the broader picture (timelines, for example) does not suggest that Homo erectus was lazy. And now we learn, “The inference that laziness typifies Homo erectus and that such a failing might have hastened their extinction is moronic,” says Neil Roach, a biological anthropologist at Harvard University. “This is a solid study with interesting results that do contribute significantly to our field, and unfortunately, the press release does exactly the opposite.” Roach makes his point emphatically, and with good reason—there’s a lot of evidence pointing to H. erectus as Read More ›

Ann Gauger, a senior scientist at the Biologic Institute, writes to defend homo erectus from charges that laziness led to his his extinction. She writes, This anthropologist is not looking at the broader picture. H erectus is estimated to have appeared somewhere in Africa 1.9 mya. By 1.8 mya H erectus is found in Dmanisi, Georgia. Not the US state. And in Europe and Asia not long after. They dispersed from Africa in 100 kya. Or about as long as it took H sapiens to do so. Who’s calling who lazy? They had a long run as a successful species. In fact, they co-existed with Neanderthals and depending on your point of view, even to the time of H sapiens, Read More ›

We don’t hear as much old-fashioned moralizing these days as we used to but this looks like the authentic product from ScienceDaily: Laziness helped lead to extinction of Homo erectus An archaeological excavation of ancient human populations in the Arabian Peninsula during the Early Stone Age, found that Homo erectus used ‘least-effort strategies’ for tool making and collecting resources. This ‘laziness’ paired with an inability to adapt to a changing climate likely played a role in the species going extinct, according to lead researcher Dr Ceri Shipton of the ANU School of Culture, History and Language. “They really don’t seem to have been pushing themselves,” Dr Shipton said. “I don’t get the sense they were explorers looking over the horizon. Read More ›