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PITHECANTHROPUS ERECTUS (Erect Ape-Man)
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PITHECANTHROPUS ERECTUS (Erect See also:Ape-See also:Man) , the name given by Dr See also:Eugene See also:Dubois, of the Dutch See also:army medical service, to the imaginary creature which he constructed from fossilized remains found by him in See also:Java. These fragments consisted of a thigh-See also:bone, two See also:teeth, and the upper See also:part of a See also:skull, and were unearthed in 1891-1892 on the See also:left See also:bank of the Bengawan See also:River near Trinil. The skull appears to have been See also:low and depressed with strong supraciliary ridges; the teeth are very large, and the femur is quite human. The teeth and skull were found together, the femur a few yards away a See also:year afterwards. The discoverer, however, stated it as his belief that the fragments were portions of the same See also:skeleton and belonged to a creature See also:half-way between man and the higher apes and of the See also:Pleistocene See also:age. Much discussion followed the " find," and many authorities have given an See also:opinion adverse to Dr Dubois's theory. The prevailing opinion is that the bones are human. They are not held to represent what has been called " the missing See also:link," bridging over the gulf between man and the apes; but almost all authorities are agreed that they constitute a further link in the See also:chain, bringing man nearer his Simian prototype. L. Manouvrier concludes that Homo javanensis walked erect, was of about See also:medium height, and was a true precursor, possibly a See also:direct ancestor, of man. He calls See also:attention to the fact that the See also:cranial capacity decreases in proportion to the antiquity of the human skulls found, and that the pithecanthropus skull has a capacity of from goo to See also:rood cc.—that is, " stands at the level of the smallest which have been occasionally found amongst the reputedly lowest See also:savage peoples." See Dubois, Pithecanthropus erectus (See also:Batavia, 1894) ; a later See also:paper read by Dr Dubois before the See also:Berlin Anthropological Society was translated in the Smithsonian See also:Report for 1898. Also a paper read by Dr D. J. See also:Cunningham before the Royal See also:Dublin Society, See also:January 23, 1895 (reported in Nature, See also:February 28, 1895); O. C. See also:Marsh, SiO2 Al203 Fe20a MgO CaO Na2O See also:K20 See also:H2O See also:Meissen, See also:Saxony . 72.42 11.26 0.75 0.28 1.35 2.86 3.8o 7.64 Corriegills, See also:Arran 72.07 11.26 3.24 tr. 1.53 o•61 5.61 5°45 Scuir of Eigg, See also:Scotland 65.81 14.01 4'43 0'89 2'01 4.15 6'08 2'70 J See also:American Journ. of See also:Science (See also:June 1896); " Le Pithecanthropus et l'origine de l'homme," in See also:Bull. de la See also:soc. d'anthrop. de See also:Paris (1896), pp. 460-67 ; L. Manouvrier, " Discussion du pithecanthropus erectus comme precurseur de 1'homme," in Bull. soc. d'anthrop. de Paris (1895), pp. 13–47 and 216–220: L. Manouvrier, Bull. soc. d'anthrop. (1896), p. 419 sqq. ; " The Trinil Femur contrasted with the Femora of various savage and civilized races," in See also:Journal of Anat. and Physiol. (1896), xxxi. r seq.; See also:Virchow, " Ober den Pithecanthropus erectus Dubois " in Zeitschrift f. Ethnologie (1895), pp. 336, 435, 648. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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