Riley Davis, The Daily Iowan
After years of uncertainty, University of Iowa paleoanthropologist Russell Ciochon and an international team of researchers are rectifying the age of chronology at the ancient settlement of Ngandong. The site is the last known settlement of Homo erectus, the direct ancestors of modern humans.
Ciochon’s research indicates the extinction of Homo erectus most likely occurred at Ngandong, located on the Indonesian island of Java, because of climate change in the region that transformed dry, woodland environment into rainforest. However, controversy surrounding the site of the extinction concerned the chronology, or the estimated timeframe that the extinction occurred, Ciochon said.