#pithecanthropus

Pithecanthropus

The former genus name assigned to fossil hominids including Java man and Peking man, both now classified as Homo erectus.

The Leatoli Footprints and Early Human Ancestors

In 1978 a team led by British paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey found trace fossils of animal footprints left in ash several million years old.  Searching further, Leakey’s team found the oldest trace fossils of early hominids in Leatoli, about 30 miles south of the famed Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania.  The footprints are though to come from three individuals from the australopithecus afarensis family.  Like the pithecanthropus (see recent post here), the australopithecus was named under the assumption that it represented a missing link between humans and primates.  The name australopithecus comes from the Latin word australis meaning south and the Ancient Greek word pithekos meaning ape.  The name was given that same year by Donald Wilson and Tim White, who found fragments two thousand miles north of the Leatoli site in the Afar region of Ethiopia, hence afarensis.

Happy Birthday, Mary Leakey, born on this day, February 6, 1913.

Shout out to my little man, Rowan, another Ethiopian treasure!

Henri Raison du Cleuziou – Scientist of the Day

Henri Raison du Cleuziou, a French archaeologist and historian, was born June 19, 1833.

Charles Mingus - Pithecanthropus Erectus - 68.3%

Serenade In Blue

It often happens in science that a theoretical word happens long before a scientist in the field can confirm the discovery.  In 1868, Haeckel coined the term anthropopithecus and almost immediately revised to pithecanthropus (for the sake of euphony), in anticipation of the discovery of the ‘missing link’ between apes and humans.  In 1891 a physician in the Dutch army in Java Dr. Eugene Dubois (born on this day, January 28, 1858, died 1940) announced the discovery of the Java Man, whom he classified as the first pithecanthropus, later classified as homo erectus.

The word pithecanthropus comes from two Ancient Greek words, πιθεκος (pithekos) meaning an ape and ανθροπος (anthropos) meaning man.  Dubois set out to south east Asia (then considered the likely home of early hominids) and searched for five years with a full team before discovering the remains of Java Man in 1891.  Unfortunately, much of the early pioneering discoveries (I mean actual bones) in early hominids were lost during World War II, though some casts and many photos and sketches remain.  There has been some recent debate about early variability of form in these hominid remains-some paleoanthropologists are calling for a consolidation and simplification of the existing extant fossil remains.