Homo Erectus in Australia

[Teejay]

It is highly likely that Homo Erectus reached the island of Flores in Indonesia, where it evolved into Homo Floresiensis.



What if they had reached Australia, along with Papua New Guinea and Tasmania (which have been one landmass at various times in the past 2 million years).


It would be highly likely that Homo Sapiens would have replaced Homo Erectus once they arrived in Australia. However, it is possible that most of megafauna which went extinct after Homo Sapiens arrived in Australia would still survive.



One possible effect would be that the Agricultural populations of the highlands of Papua New Guinea might be able to domesticate species of Diprotodon (if its gestation period was similar to that of cows or horses). Right now I can’t think other megafauna which went extinct in OTL, that could have been domesticated.

 

[Malone]

There actually appears to be some connections between Australian Aborigines and homo erectus:

The existence of Denisovan DNA in the Aboriginal Australian’s genome indicates that the original dispersing population of Homo sapiens must have encountered resident Denisovans en route to Australia, possibly in New Guinea. So we now have the intriguing possibility that the island chains leading to Australia were home to the last surviving members of Homo erectus on Java, ‘hobbits’ (Homo floresiensis) on Flores, and Denisovans in New Guinea – and that some or all of these were met by the ancestors of the Aboriginal Australian whose hair was sequenced in this study.”

http://www.australasianscience.com....genome-reveals-new-insights-early-humans.html

Others suspect they are descended from them

Some scientists have hypothesized that Australian aboriginals received a portion of their DNA from an ancient hominid species called Homo erectus, which for a short time was contemporaneous with modern man. A recent study published in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences) set out to answer this question by analyzing mtDNA and Y-chromosome samples from aboriginals.

http://www.thegeneticgenealogist.co...cendants-of-the-extinct-species-homo-erectus/

 

[Sime]

There actually appears to be some connections between Australian Aborigines and homo erectus:



http://www.australasianscience.com....genome-reveals-new-insights-early-humans.html

Others suspect they are descended from them



http://www.thegeneticgenealogist.co...cendants-of-the-extinct-species-homo-erectus/

Watch it, facts tend to attract the ban

 

[Hierophant]

There actually appears to be some connections between Australian Aborigines and homo erectus:



http://www.australasianscience.com....genome-reveals-new-insights-early-humans.html

Others suspect they are descended from them



http://www.thegeneticgenealogist.co...cendants-of-the-extinct-species-homo-erectus/

Did you not finish reading the article? The paragraph after the second quote answers the question. No.

 

[Riain]

Given what happened to all other hominids when homo sapiens arrived on the scene I think we can safely say that homo erectus wouldn't survive today in Australia.

 

[Malone]

Did you not finish reading the article? The paragraph after the second quote answers the question. No.

I stated that there are some who suspect them to be descended or at least related to Homo Erectus. Which is correct based on the article, I said nothing of the actual conclusions to that statement.

 

[pompejus]

Given what happened to all other hominids when homo sapiens arrived on the scene I think we can safely say that homo erectus wouldn't survive today in Australia.

Yeah, we are pretty good in killing and outbreeding other humanoids.

 

[Hierophant]

I stated that there are some who suspect them to be descended or at least related to Homo Erectus. Which is correct based on the article, I said nothing of the actual conclusions to that statement.

Honestly I did some more digging and it seems strange that no homo erectus dna has been sequenced. I guess we won't know for sure till that happens.

 

[Pangur]

Given what happened to all other hominids when homo sapiens arrived on the scene I think we can safely say that homo erectus wouldn't survive today in Australia.

If they were still around in 1788 they just might have survived. I`m thinking along these lines. They are spread across a large area including say WA and SA - the desert areas. They are certainly known about and would surely get the attention of Darwin. It might not be that impossible to keep enough of them alive until recent times where we would not allow genocide

 

[Albireo]

I wonder if it could lead to more Australian megafauna surviving, seeing as H. erectus were likely not as efficient hunters as H. sapiens, which could give the animals some time to adapt to hominid predation before we inevitably show up.

 

[Kate The Great]

I never knew that there were no Homo Erectus still around.

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

Honestly I did some more digging and it seems strange that no homo erectus dna has been sequenced. I guess we won't know for sure till that happens.

Not strange at all. It looks like the most recent H. erectus remains are from ~70kya, and the only full genomes we have yet sequenced that are that old are from the Arctic, I believe.

There were older Neanderthal dna segments sequenced, from Spain (the full mitochondria dna from 400kya, e.g.), but 1) that's only the mitochondrial dna (which is MUCH shorter), and 2) that's still a lot cooler than Indonesia (which is where the most recent H. erectus remains are from, iirc).

So, it's not only not surprising H. erectus dna hasn't been sequenced, it would be astonishing if it had been.

 

[moxn]

Watch it, facts tend to attract the ban

What's this in reference to?

 

[Zheng He]

Yeah, we are pretty good in killing and outbreeding other humanoids.

And interbreeding with them and absorbing them into our population. My brother ran our family DNA through some service you can do this with and according to their analysis we (as in my immediate family and me) 2.5% Neanderthal and 1.5% Devosonian in terms of our DNA. Apparently the average person of European descent is about 2% Neanderthal.