Expert: John Shea - 10/14/2008

Question
I would like to know which one is the largest (non Homo sapiens) hominiN known to date.
I've heard the Megantrhopus ended up being a hoax? Or am I wrong?
Also, is there any hominin species more adapted than the others to a predatory lifestyle?

Thanx!

Answer
The largest hominin known to date is African Homo heidelbergensis, specifically the Bodo (Ethiopia) fossil.  Estimates of its size are all over the place, but by any standard, he was a very large creature, at least 6 feet tall and more than 225-250 lbs.
Meganthropus?  I think this is an old (now abandoned) name for some extremely fragmentary hominin fossils from Indonesia now grouped in among Homo erectus.  It was once thought to link earlier hominines (apes) to Homo erectus locally, but this hypothesis no longer enjoys much support apart from those scholars deeply invested with the argument that there  was long term human evolutionary continuity in East Asia.  (There is a series of large ape teeth fossils from SE Asia known as Gigantopithecus, but this was not a hominin, probably a big gorilla-like creature.)
Pretty much all species of the genus homo, excepting Homo habilis show postrcranial adaptations to endurance running and/or aimed throwing, both prerequisites for an effective predatory adaptation.  If you want more detailed information on this, write me separately and I will send you a pdf of a paper David Bramble, Dan Lieberman and I published last year in the Journal of Human Evolution.
Cheers,
John Shea
(Sorry it has taken so long to reply to your question, I was away from the office last week on personal business.)