The different hominid species, possibly including the oldest-known Homo erecetus, existed in the region’s hills and caves

Two million years ago, three different early humans—Australopithecus, Paranthropus, and the earliest-known Homo erectus—appear to have lived at the same time in the same place, near the Drimolen Paleocave System. How much these different species interacted remains unknown. But their contemporaneous existence suggests our ancient relations were quite diverse during a key transitional period of African prehistory that saw the last days of Australopithecus and the dawn of H. erectus’s nearly two-million-year run.

“We know that the old idea, that when one species occurs another goes extinct and you don’t have much overlap, that’s just not the case,” says study coauthor Andy Herries, a paleoanthropologist at La Trobe University in Australia.

Australopithecus africanus is the most primitive of this trio. The lineage dates to 3.3 million years ago and combines human features with ape-like attributes including long, tree climbing-arms. Despite these intermediate features, Australopithecus’s exact relation to modern humans remains unknown. The species is thought to have died out around 2 million years ago.

Paranthropus robustus, an offshoot of the human family tree not considered a direct human ancestor, is known for large, powerful jaws and teeth that could pulverize a diet of nuts, seeds, roots and tubers. Paranthropus lived from perhaps 2 million years ago (the remains described in this study are the earliest known) until about 1.2 million years ago.

Homo erectus was the first ancestor of modern humans to have human-like body proportions and the first to appear outside of Africa. The species appeared in what is now the nation of Georgia 1.85 million years ago and survived in some Indonesian enclaves until as recently as 117,000 years ago. It’s generally believed that they first evolved in Africa, and the cranium find described at Drimolen would push back their earliest-known occurrence anywhere in the world by more than 100,000 years.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/homo-erectrus-australopithecus-saranthropus-south-africa-180974571/

heart-warming

dv said:

heart-warming

And you didn’t even read it. Why do you pretend to be interested?

PermeateFree said:

dv said:

heart-warming

And you didn’t even read it. Why do you pretend to be interested?

I don’t want to hurt your feelings

dv said:

PermeateFree said:

dv said:

heart-warming

And you didn’t even read it. Why do you pretend to be interested?

I don’t want to hurt your feelings

Smelly hippy commune

> Two million years ago, three different early humans—Australopithecus, Paranthropus, and the earliest-known Homo erectus—appear to have lived at the same time in the same place, near the Drimolen Paleocave System.

Very interesting. I didn’t expect that from this early date. There are numerous examples of two kinds of early humans living together. Sometimes three such as Denisovan + Neanderthal + Sapiens. But that’s from very much later.

In the Sterkfontein caves in South Africa we have Australopithecus, early Homo and Paranthropus bones found together, but that hadn’t necessarily meant that they all lived there at the same time. The existence of three species in the same cave system has been know for a long time, perhaps back as far as 1947.

There has been a bit of difference in date between these three species at Sterkfontein. Early Homo is no older than 1.8 million years. Paranthropus is about 4 million years old (some people claim 3). With Australopithecus in the middle at 2.6 to 2.0 million years old.

mollwollfumble said:

> Two million years ago, three different early humans—Australopithecus, Paranthropus, and the earliest-known Homo erectus—appear to have lived at the same time in the same place, near the Drimolen Paleocave System.

Very interesting. I didn’t expect that from this early date. There are numerous examples of two kinds of early humans living together. Sometimes three such as Denisovan + Neanderthal + Sapiens. But that’s from very much later.

In the Sterkfontein caves in South Africa we have Australopithecus, early Homo and Paranthropus bones found together, but that hadn’t necessarily meant that they all lived there at the same time. The existence of three species in the same cave system has been know for a long time, perhaps back as far as 1947.

There has been a bit of difference in date between these three species at Sterkfontein. Early Homo is no older than 1.8 million years. Paranthropus is about 4 million years old (some people claim 3). With Australopithecus in the middle at 2.6 to 2.0 million years old.

I think you need to read the article to understand the situation.