Java Man
Java Man was one of the first specimens of Homo erectus to be discovered. It was originally given the scientific name Pithecanthropus erectus by its discoverer Eugène Dubois, who found the remains at the site of Trinil in 1891. The word "pithecanthropos" was derived from Greek roots and means ape man.
Dubois' find was not a complete specimen, but consisted merely of a skullcap, a femur, and three teeth. It was also not clear whether those bones came from the same species. A 342-page report written shortly after the find throws much doubt upon the validity of this particular specimen. Despite this, the Java Man is still found in many textbooks today. A second Java Man was later discovered in the village of Sangiran, Central Java, 18km to the north of Solo. His remains, a skullcap of similar size to that found by Dubois, was discovered by Berlin-born paleontologist GHR von Koenigswald in 1936, as a direct result of excavations by Dubois in 1891.
Until older human remains were discovered in the Great Rift Valley in Kenya, Dubois' and Koenigswald's discoveries were the oldest hominid remains ever found, and were the first cited as support for Charles Darwin's and Alfred Russel Wallace's theory of evolution. Many scientists of the day even suggested that Dubois' Java Man might have been the so-called "missing link", the creature that is supposed to provide the evolutionary connection between the apes and modern man. Due to 19th-century skepticism, this theory was never credited to Dubois. In recent years, several anthropologists have argued that Java Man is not the "missing link", but is in fact, a true member of the Human family. [1]
Sir Arthur Keith, an anatomist of from Cambridge University, later claimed that the skull cap itself, '[is] distinctly human and reflected a brain capacity well within the range of humans living today',[2], thus refuting Eugene Dubois's original claim that '[Java man] represents a stage in the devolopment of modern man from a smaller-brained ancestor'.[3]
Even as recently as 1994, Time Magazine stated that '[Java Man] is a legimate evolutionary ancestor'[4] which is in disagreement with several anthropologists.
In popular culture
Brazilian cartoonist Maurício de Sousa, inspired by the Java Man's scientific name, created a caveman called Pitheco, whose full name is Pithecanthropus erectus da Silva (Silva is the most common Brazilian surname)[1]. "Da Silva" is omitted in the English version[2].
See also
Sahelanthropus tchadensis • Orrorin tugenensis • Ardipithecus
Australopithecus: A. anamensis • A. afarensis • A. bahrelghazali • A. africanus • A. garhi
Paranthropus: P. aethiopicus • P. boisei • P. robustus
Kenyanthropus platyops
Homo: H. habilis • H. rudolfensis • H. georgicus • H. ergaster • H. erectus (H. e. lantianensis • H. e. palaeojavanicus • H. e. pekinensis • H. e. soloensis) • H. cepranensis • H. antecessor • H. heidelbergensis • H. neanderthalensis • H. rhodesiensis • H. floresiensis • Homo sapiens (H. s. idaltu • H. s. sapiens)
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