Continuity and discontinuity in the postcranial remains of Homo erectus

The earliest record of the postcranial remains of Homo erectus was provided by Dubois who recovered a femur from Trinil in Java. Dubois believed this Trinil femur was associated with the Trinil calotte now attributed also to Homo erectus. Doubts about the attribution of this femur to Homo erectus have echoed the findings of anatomists, over many years, who could not distinguish the Trinil femur from that of Homo sapiens on anatomical grounds. Weidenreich in 1941 described the Zhoukoudian femora as distinct in their morphology and Olduvai Hominid 28 was shown to share features with these remains. Later work on the Koobi Fora hominids has shown similar results. Pelvic remains of Homo erectus are now known from Olduvai, Koobi Fora and Arago.

The new skeleton of Homo erectus (WT 15,000) from West Turkana, North Kenya, shows similar femoro-pelvic features but they are less well expressed owing to the juvenility of the specimen.