Homo erectus

MOLECULAR-BASED PHYLOGENY OF HOMO ERECTUS

PROJECT 4 will initially use the quick tandem MS data-independent-acquisition (DIA) methods, developed by PROJECT 11 and used by PROJECT 7 and PROJECT 9 as well, to screen isolated tooth specimens from Asia. Because of the convergence in molar crown size and overall morphology between fossil Homo and Pongo (orangutan), the taxonomic diagnosis of many Asian Early Pleistocene dentognathic specimens has been debated for over a century, especially concerning fragmentary and heavily worn specimens. The specimens, including some confidently assigned to H. erectus, will be deep-sequenced to maximize the dental enamel palaeoproteome sequence recovered, to enable confident phylogenetic assignment. At an advanced project stage, Homo erectus position will be defined in relation to other various Asian regions.

More than 200 hominid fossil dental remains spanning from the Miocene to the Pleistocene from Asia and including various taxa such as Sivapithecus, Gigantopithecus, Pongo, Meganthropus and Homo erectus are housed at the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum of Frankfurt am Main in Germany (https://www.senckenberg.de) under the care of Prof. Friedemann Schrenk and Dr. Ottmar Kullmer who actively collaborate with researchers in the PUSHH project and represent a fundamental asset to the success of ESR3 and ESR4.