The late Middle Pleistocene Homo erectus of the Madura Strait, first hominin fossils from submerged Sundaland
Eastern Asia yielded a rich fossil record of Pleistocene hominins, ranging from Homo erectus and the diminutive island species Homo floresiensis and Homo luzonensis, to post-erectus grade late archaic Homo (including Denisovans), and finally to anatomically modern humans. The Sunda Shelf played an i...
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Elsevier
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Quaternary Environments and Humans |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S295023652500012X |
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| author | H.W.K. Berghuis Yousuke Kaifu Unggul Prasetyo Wibowo Thijs van Kolfschoten Indra Sutisna Sofwan Noerwidi Shinatria Adhityatama Gert van den Bergh Eduard Pop Rusyad Adi Suriyanto A. Veldkamp Josephine C.A. Joordens Iwan Kurniawan |
| author_facet | H.W.K. Berghuis Yousuke Kaifu Unggul Prasetyo Wibowo Thijs van Kolfschoten Indra Sutisna Sofwan Noerwidi Shinatria Adhityatama Gert van den Bergh Eduard Pop Rusyad Adi Suriyanto A. Veldkamp Josephine C.A. Joordens Iwan Kurniawan |
| author_sort | H.W.K. Berghuis |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Eastern Asia yielded a rich fossil record of Pleistocene hominins, ranging from Homo erectus and the diminutive island species Homo floresiensis and Homo luzonensis, to post-erectus grade late archaic Homo (including Denisovans), and finally to anatomically modern humans. The Sunda Shelf played an important role in the dispersal and evolution of hominin populations. The shelf has been widely exposed during most of the Pleistocene, forming a landmass known as Sundaland. Today, the area holds the world’s largest shelf sea. Thus far, hominin fossils from submerged Sundaland were not available. Here we report on the finding of two hominin cranial fragments from the submerged Sunda Shelf, retrieved during a dredging work in the Madura Strait, off the Java coast. The specimens derive from the sandy fill of a late Middle Pleistocene submerged valley of the Solo River and consist of a frontal fragment and a parietal fragment. Metric and morphological comparisons with Pleistocene skulls from the Asian mainland, Java and Flores point to a relation with the late Homo erectus of Java, in particular with the crania from Sambungmacan. The Madura Strait hominins were probably part of an MIS6 population that lived along the Solo, which in this period continued eastward over the exposed shelf area of the Madura Strait. Probably, the large perennial rivers of Sundaland offered good living conditions for Homo erectus, in a late Middle Pleistocene climate setting that was relatively dry. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-2b69cb853f664b028a7dd66d6d25a32a |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2950-2365 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Quaternary Environments and Humans |
| spelling | doaj-art-2b69cb853f664b028a7dd66d6d25a32a2025-08-20T03:22:58ZengElsevierQuaternary Environments and Humans2950-23652025-06-013210006810.1016/j.qeh.2025.100068The late Middle Pleistocene Homo erectus of the Madura Strait, first hominin fossils from submerged SundalandH.W.K. Berghuis0Yousuke Kaifu1Unggul Prasetyo Wibowo2Thijs van Kolfschoten3Indra Sutisna4Sofwan Noerwidi5Shinatria Adhityatama6Gert van den Bergh7Eduard Pop8Rusyad Adi Suriyanto9A. Veldkamp10Josephine C.A. Joordens11Iwan Kurniawan12Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9514, Leiden, the Netherlands; Sealand Coastal Consultancy, van Baerlestraat 140, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Corresponding author at: Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9514, Leiden, the Netherlands.The University Museum, The University of Tokyo, 3-1-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, JapanGeological Museum, Jl. Diponegoro 57, Bandung, Jawa Barat, Bandung 40122, IndonesiaFaculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9514, Leiden, the Netherlands; Institute of Cultural Heritage, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Highway, Qingdao, Shandong 266237, China; Joint International Research Laboratory of Environmental and Social Archaeology, Shandong University, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Highway, Qingdao, Shandong 266237, ChinaDirektorat Promosi Kebudayaan, Direktorat Jenderal Diplomasi, Promosi dan Kerja Sama Kebudayaan, Kementerian Kebudayaan, Jl. Jenderal Sudirman, Senayan, Jakarta 10270, IndonesiaBadan Riset dan Inovasi Nasional, Organisasi Riset Arkeologi, Bahasa dan Sastra, Jl. Condet Pejaten No.4, Jakarta 12510, IndonesiaGriffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD, AustraliaSchool of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, AustraliaFaculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9514, Leiden, the Netherlands; Naturalis biodiversity Center, P.O. Box 9517, Leiden, the NetherlandsLaboratory of Bioanthropology and Paleoanthropology, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Jl. Bulaksumur, Yogyakarta, Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta 55281, IndonesiaFaculty ITC, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, Enschede 7500 AE, the NetherlandsFaculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9514, Leiden, the Netherlands; Naturalis biodiversity Center, P.O. Box 9517, Leiden, the Netherlands; Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig 04103, GermanyCenter for Geological Survey of Indonesia, Jl. Diponegoro 57, Bandung, Jawa Barat 40122, IndonesiaEastern Asia yielded a rich fossil record of Pleistocene hominins, ranging from Homo erectus and the diminutive island species Homo floresiensis and Homo luzonensis, to post-erectus grade late archaic Homo (including Denisovans), and finally to anatomically modern humans. The Sunda Shelf played an important role in the dispersal and evolution of hominin populations. The shelf has been widely exposed during most of the Pleistocene, forming a landmass known as Sundaland. Today, the area holds the world’s largest shelf sea. Thus far, hominin fossils from submerged Sundaland were not available. Here we report on the finding of two hominin cranial fragments from the submerged Sunda Shelf, retrieved during a dredging work in the Madura Strait, off the Java coast. The specimens derive from the sandy fill of a late Middle Pleistocene submerged valley of the Solo River and consist of a frontal fragment and a parietal fragment. Metric and morphological comparisons with Pleistocene skulls from the Asian mainland, Java and Flores point to a relation with the late Homo erectus of Java, in particular with the crania from Sambungmacan. The Madura Strait hominins were probably part of an MIS6 population that lived along the Solo, which in this period continued eastward over the exposed shelf area of the Madura Strait. Probably, the large perennial rivers of Sundaland offered good living conditions for Homo erectus, in a late Middle Pleistocene climate setting that was relatively dry.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S295023652500012XHominin evolutionSupraorbital torusSubsea fossil siteNgandongMIS6 |
| spellingShingle | H.W.K. Berghuis Yousuke Kaifu Unggul Prasetyo Wibowo Thijs van Kolfschoten Indra Sutisna Sofwan Noerwidi Shinatria Adhityatama Gert van den Bergh Eduard Pop Rusyad Adi Suriyanto A. Veldkamp Josephine C.A. Joordens Iwan Kurniawan The late Middle Pleistocene Homo erectus of the Madura Strait, first hominin fossils from submerged Sundaland Quaternary Environments and Humans Hominin evolution Supraorbital torus Subsea fossil site Ngandong MIS6 |
| title | The late Middle Pleistocene Homo erectus of the Madura Strait, first hominin fossils from submerged Sundaland |
| title_full | The late Middle Pleistocene Homo erectus of the Madura Strait, first hominin fossils from submerged Sundaland |
| title_fullStr | The late Middle Pleistocene Homo erectus of the Madura Strait, first hominin fossils from submerged Sundaland |
| title_full_unstemmed | The late Middle Pleistocene Homo erectus of the Madura Strait, first hominin fossils from submerged Sundaland |
| title_short | The late Middle Pleistocene Homo erectus of the Madura Strait, first hominin fossils from submerged Sundaland |
| title_sort | late middle pleistocene homo erectus of the madura strait first hominin fossils from submerged sundaland |
| topic | Hominin evolution Supraorbital torus Subsea fossil site Ngandong MIS6 |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S295023652500012X |
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