Java Man is the name given to fossils discovered in 1891 at
Trinil on the banks of the
Bengawan Solo River in
East Java,
Indonesia, one of the first known specimens of
Homo erectus. Its discoverer,
Eugène Dubois, gave it the
scientific name Pithecanthropus erectus, a name derived from Greek and Latin roots meaning
upright ape-man.
History and significance
Dubois' find was not a complete specimen, but consisted of a
skullcap, a
femur, and a few
teeth. There is some dissent as to whether all these bones represent the same species. A second, more complete specimen was later discovered in the village of
Sangiran, Central
Java, 18km to the north of
Solo. This find, a skullcap of similar size to that found by Dubois, was discovered by Berlin-born paleontologist
GHR von Koenigswald in 1936. Many more finds have subsequently been made at the Sangiran site [needs better citation], although official reports remain critical of the site's "poor" presentation and interpretation .
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. Some scientists of the day suggested Dubois' Java Man as a potential intermediate form between modern humans and the common ancestor we share with the other
great apes. The current consensus of anthropologists is that the direct ancestors of modern humans were African populations of
Homo erectus (possibly
Homo ergaster), rather than the Asian populations exemplified by Java Man and
Peking Man.
As with many notable hominid fossil finds, some creationists have attempted to downplay the evolutionary significance of Java Man by arguing the specimen should be considered either fully human or fully ape. An example of the former argument is the claim that Java Man is "a true member of the Human family; an example of the latter is the erroneous claim that Dubois himself later decided that Java Man was really a large Gibbon.
See also
References
External links
Notes
