could anyone point me to Fat free body weight estimates for Homo erectus? Looking for muscle mass not total body weight.
Ian,
Most of the evidence is on the increased body size and cranial capacity. There were differences between men and women, based on the skeletons.
Homo Erectus evolved to 5 feet and had longer limbs allowing greater mobility when searching for food. Below is a link to an article giving the details of tool development and physical development.
https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/homo-erectus-a-bigger-smarter-97879043
Homo Erectus relied on Elephants for protein and fat. When elephants became scarce there was a need to hunt small, fast animals which required greater brain-power. The evolution toward modern man was toward a lighter and quicker body that did not require as many calories, nor as much fat. This suggests that Homo Erectus was shorter and more muscular (since muscle is heavier than fat) as compared to modern man. Here is a citation to an article that might be of interest.
Ben-Dor M, Gopher A, Hershkovitz I, Barkai R. Man the Fat Hunter: The Demise of Homo erectus and the Emergence of a New Hominin Lineage in the Middle Pleistocene (ca. 400 kyr) Levant. Smith FH, ed. PLoS ONE. 2011;6(12):e28689. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0028689. I also attached a pdf of the article.
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