Homo erectus soloensis, known as Solo Man and formerly classified as Homo sapiens soloensis, is generally now regarded as a subspecies of the extinct hominin, Homo erectus. The only known specimens of this anomalous hominid were retrieved from sites along the Bengawan Solo River, on the Indonesian island of Java. The remains are also commonly referred to as Ngandong, after the village near where they were first recovered.

Though its morphology was, for the most part, typical of Homo erectus, its culture was unusually advanced^[1]. This poses many problems to current theories concerning the limitations of Homo erectus behavior in terms of innovation and language. Due to the tools found with the extinct hominid and many of its more gracile anatomical features, it was first classified as a subspecies (once called Javanthropus) of Homo sapiens and thought to be the ancestor of modern aboriginal Australians. However, more rigorous studies have concluded that this is not the case.^[2] While most subspecies of Homo erectus disappeared from the fossil record roughly 400,000 years ago. Analisis of 18 crania from Sangiran, Trinil, Sambungmacan, and Ngandong show chronological development from Bapang-AG to Ngandong period^[3]. H. e. soloensis which persisted up until 50,000 years ago in regions of Java and was possibly absorbed by a local Homo sapiens population at the time of its decline^[4].

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Morphology of Solo man Anthropological papers of the AMNH
• Early Indonesia content excerpted from Indonesia: A Country Study, William H. Frederick and Robert L. Worden , eds. Washington, DC: Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress, 1992