I notice only small similarties with modern human populations and previous hominids. Chinese people and other orientals have high prominent cheek bones and small eye orbits just like Peking man. However in Asia there is a variation of Homo erectus characteristics.
H. ergaster
H. erectus
In the Island of Java, Saringan 17 is far more robust than Peking man and it's eye orbits and cheeck are much larger. What has particularly interested the multiregionalists is that in Eastern Asia there is acountinueing trend from Homo erectus, archaic H. sapiens and modern humans. No other continent demonstrates such a gradual evolution from H. erectus to H. sapiens like Asia. This was what origionally promted scientists to think that modern humans arose in Asia. However as we all know it is much simpler to trace our ancient genetic past in Africa by mitochondria
WT-15000 Nariokotome boy (Turkana boy)
Modern African populations have variation among themselves but many are tall and athletic like the Masaai of Kenya. Coincidently Homo ergaster's "Turkana Boy" also had a tall ethlitic body like modern Africans from the East. Sure Turkana boy had several distinctions closer to H. erectus from China, but this 9 to 12 year old did not have the ability for complex language because it's thoratic vertibrae was narrorer than modern humans. Turkana boy from 1.6 million years ago had the brain size of a 1 year old modern baby. All humans in all geographical areas in the world have craniums with similarities of Cro magnon.
Turkana boy's kin were the first groups of hominids to gradually change from the more apelike H. habilis and Australopithecines. The Australopithecine skeleton of Lucy demonstrated in a model simulation to have walked like an Orangutan, bipedal but not quit like modern humans. The pelivic on Turkana boy however was more narrow than in present day humans meaning that they were able to run longer distances than us.
[img]http://mywebpages.comcast.net/mkent595/Hominids11.JPEG[/img]
I myself am ordering a copy of Turkana boy on Ebay
Homo ergaster and it's close cousin Homo erectus were more robust than modern humans. They lived more physically demanding lives, it is likely that they were smooth-skinned and tall. In Africa or Asia as well Homo erectus may have had dark skin pigmintation as a sun protection against the Sun's deadly UV rays. All these adaptations in the physical body and along with sets of Acheulan stone tools made them the most succesful hominids of the past. Migrational routes 1.9 and 1 million years ago could not be made possible if it were not for a tight bond within each group. Since these hominids were more well adapted to their environments than the previous furry apemen, they had the ability to hunt small or larger creatures.
[img]http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/cavemen/fossils/gallery/fossils_ss_turkana.jpg[/img]
Most complete skeleton of H. ergaster/erectus
Some have claimed that fire was discovered less than 500,000 years ago. Perhapes they first learned to control fire after lightning struck a tree cousing it to ignite. Later on humans learned to produce fire by striking flint, later by rubbing piecesof wood like in Quest for fire.
Traits such as large browridges and slightly protruding faces still exist among a few populations to day. Essentially all skulls are similar to Cro magnons round cranium. Not that I support multiregionalism but I do have an open mind about the evolution of modern humans. It seems that because so many people are mixing today it becomes harder to seperate certain variants of modern humans.
Australoid peoples as well as few arcahic Europeans still share large brow ridges. Pretty cool!! 8) I wish I had archaic features, I have only a few. I'm a hairy guy,lol.
I find such features as not only cool, but a sign of originality....
