The last Homo erectus
The species that lasted longer than any other human ends its run on Java.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 9 thousand years
- Known to
- ± 10 thousand years
- Era
- Late Pleistocene, Quaternary
Bone beds at Ngandong on the Solo River, re-dated in 2019 to between about 117,000 and 108,000 years ago, contain the youngest known Homo erectus remains. The species had persisted for well over a million and a half years. Its end on Java coincides with the replacement of open woodland by rainforest, an environment it appears not to have adapted to. Modern humans do not arrive in the region until considerably later.