De Homo erectus fauna’s van Java

The changes in the faunal succession in the Pleistocene of Java can be explained by: 1) geographical position, Java is situated at the periphery of S.E. Asia; 2) the succession of glacials, causing sealevel lowering, which result in connecting islands as Java, Borneo and Sumatra with the continent. 3) the reduction of the Tropical rainforest during glacials, which in the tropics are characterized by dry periods. Together with the connection with the mainland this favoured the migration of mammals which lived in open habitats. There are two dramatic faunal-turnovers in the faunal succession of Java: 1) the one from the unbalanced island fauna, the Satir fauna, with mastodon to the continental fauna, the Ci-Saat fauna, in which Homo erectus is present. All the endemic island forms are disappeared. This faunal turnover must have happened at about 1.2 Ma. 2) a second dramatic faunal change in the Late Pleistocene, probably 80.000 years ago. All the Middle Pleistocene forms, like Stegodon, Hexaprotodon and Homo erectus, became extinct and a new fauna, with the extant Elephas maximus and probably recent Man, Homo sapiens, appears. When considering the faunal succession in eastern Java, the island fauna is missing. From this it may be concluded that East Java became dry land after 1.2 Ma. The date of 1.8 Ma given by SWISHER et al. (1994) for the Modjokerto skull, which is situated at East Java, is for this reason very unlikely.