We aren’t the only human species to have migrated out of Africa. In fact, our cousins have done it already, albeit to a lesser degree. The first time occurred just after the time our ancestors’ brains grew significantly and when we mastered the art of fire and was carried out by a species called Homo erectus. Homo erectus, apart from being the first hominin out of Africa, was also the first hairless human and the first of our ancestors to become tall.
Homo erectus evolved from Homo ergaster, and they were so similar that there are a lot of scientists who argue that they are the same species. These hominins mastered fire and brought about a new type of stone tool: the Acheulian technology named after the Saint-Acheul caves in France. Homo ergaster lived in a time where the slow advent of the Ice Age made Africa much drier and more inhospitable than ever before, and a large chunk of tribes moved into the Middle East, where they split into a lot of subspecies: Homo erectus, the Upright Man of Asia, Homo georgicus, the Georgian man, Homo antecessor, the Pioneer, and Homo heidelbergensis. Of these, Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis are the main players in the field.
Homo georgicus is thought to have been an earlier advent at moving out of Africa, because the stone tool technology (and the skeletons) are much more primitive than that of the later Homo ergaster specimens of the time. Homo antecessor, while looking much more human than the other hominins of that time, is now thought to be a European offshoot of H. erectus, and our real ancestors are Homo heidelbergensis, which spread into Europe, Northeast Asia, and even back into Africa. Different populations of these hominins gave rise to the Neanderthals, the Denisovans, and finally archaic Homo sapiens.
Homo erectus in Asia had an interesting journey. In China, it may have given rise to the mysterious “Homo longi” (but now they are thought to be an offshoot of the Denisovans) and it made it’s way to Southeast Asia, where Homo erectus thrived in the small islands. Eventually, two distinct species with very strange features evolved from Homo erectus on the island of Flores near Java and on the Phillippines. Homo floresiensis and Homo luzonensis, nicknamed “the Hobbits” for their dwarflike stature, are one of the most remarkable example of island dwarfism, a phenomenon where populations of the same species will evolve to be smaller on islands compared to the mainland due to a scarcity of resources. Indeed, these hominins grew to be only around 4 feet tall and had stunted feet and hands compared to modern humans. We can actually see this today, where islander populations are generally shorter compared to people from the mainland, although not to such a drastic degree.
The last fossils that we have of Homo erectus and the “Hobbits” are from 100,000 years ago, after which either the Denisovans or humans arrived and outcompeted them to extinction. However, their legacies might remain in the form of “Orang Pendek” a goblin-like ape creature in Indonesian mythology that people claim to see even today. However, this is highly speculative and requires Homo floresiensis to have survived undetected for millennia, which I think is very unlikely. Still, it’s some good for thought, huh? We’ll talk about the Ice Age and our first contact with Neanderthals next time.
Anay Ganesh 