erectus’ adaptations could have gone beyond physical abilities. She argues, “There was something special-either biologically, they were smarter, [or] they had social structure-that allowed humans to be successful durante these novel environments.”
erectus from the 1.77 million-year-old Dmanisi site con Georgia for support. Analysis suggests the bones came from a man who lived for some time without teeth before his death. Though more than one cornice is possible, Belmaker argues this hominin likely survived because others cared for him, assisting with the hard rete di emittenti of gathering, hunting, and preparing raw meat and root vegetables-which would have to be mashed down for verso man who could not chew.
These ideas radically reimagine the capacities of ancient hominins. “Homo erectus was not per passive creature con its environment,” Belmaker concludes. “It didn’t just go with the flow-’Oh, more grassland, I’ll move here’-but was an adroite factor sopra its own destiny. If they chose puro live sopra woodlands, it means that they had some form of agency in their destiny, and that’s per very evolved animal.”
Several major hominin milestones, including the dispersals of H
Other scholars agree that H. erectus was not simply following spreading savanna as the climate changed but rather had the capacity preciso adjust preciso per variety of environments.
“The course of human evolutionary history has been a ratcheting up of different abilities onesto occupy verso variety of environments,” says paleoanthropologist Rick Potts, the head of the Smithsonian Institution’s Human Origins Program, “of eating a greater variety of foods, of being able esatto respond cognitively and socially puro per wider variety of situations.”
