ABSTRACT
The dispersal of modern humans is a global process reaching across Australia and the Americas. George McJunkin was a quintessential scientific outsider. An African American rancher born into slavery, McJunkin became an avid amateur scientist with wide-ranging interests, including astronomy, archaeology, and fossil bones. Populations of Homo erectus were well established in China by 1.6 million years ago and by around 1.5 million years ago, as indicated by the age of the Sangiran fossils from Java, Homo erectus had spread into Southeast Asia. However, the subsequent evolutionary dynamics in East and Southeast Asia are only gradually coming into focus. During periods of glacial advance and low sea level, Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea were connected in a landmass known as Sahul. A similar landmass known as Sunda connected much of Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, and much of Indonesia.
