Scientists narrow age of Homo erectus

Professor Russell Ciochon holds a cast of a Homo erectus skull at his lab in Iowa City in the US.

Scientists have finally calculated the age of the youngest known remains of Homo erectus, which is generally considered an ancestor of our species.

The fossilised skull fragments and other bones were uncovered on the Indonesian island of Java in the 1930s.

Determining their age has been a scientific challenge, and a wide range has been proposed by numerous studies.

In a report released by the journal Nature, scientists conclude the remains are between 108,000 and 117,000 years old.

Researchers used five dating techniques on sediments and fossil animal bones from the area, combining 52 age estimates for the analysis. The project took 13 years to complete.

Paleoanthropologist Russell Ciochon of the University of Iowa, an author of the study, said: "I don't see any way to date this site more thoroughly."

Homo erectus arose in Africa about two million years ago and spread widely there and in Asia, and possibly into Europe. The species stood upright, had a smaller brain than modern humans, a low forhead and a protruding face.

The extinct ancient humans reached Java more than 1.5 million years ago, and the new dates suggest the species died out at least 35,000 years before the arrival there of our own species, Homo sapiens.

Homo erectus may have been doomed on Java by climate change that turned its open woodland environment into rainforest, Mr Ciochon said.

Still, Homo erectus evidently existed longer on Earth than any other species on the "Homo" or human branch of the evolutionary tree.

Susan Anton, a New York University anthropologist who did not participate in the work, called the dating effort "heroic".

But she considers the reported age range to be too narrow and prefers a span of less than 550,000 years old to more than 100,000 years old.

That is roughly what she and co-authors proposed in a paper published in 2011.

The younger end of the range in that paper was as recent as 120,000 years, which she said is virtually the same as the new result.

Australian Associated Press