Pithecanthropus skull structure. Pithecanthropus. Human ancestor? New discoveries. Abstract: Ancient people

PITECANTHROPES OF PITECANTHROPES

(from the Greek pithekos - a monkey and anthropos - a man), ape-men, fossil people, representatives of archantropians. Preceded by Neanderthals. Known for eight incomplete skulls, fragments of the lower. jaws, femurs from the Middle Pleistocene about. Java. The skeletal remains of P. (cranial roof, femur, teeth) were first discovered in 1890-92 by E. Dubois. Abs. age - from 1.9 million years to 650 thousand years. P.'s skull has a powerful supraorbital ridge, a flattened and low arch, a protruding nape, and other features characteristic of monkeys. In terms of brain volume (900 cm man. The femurs are similar to the human femurs and testify to the upright posture of P. The discovery of P. - an "intermediate link" between a monkey and a man - was the first proof of Charles Darwin's simial hypothesis about the origin of man from highly developed apes. (see SKULL) fig. at Art.

.(Source: "Biological Encyclopedic Dictionary." - M .: Sov.Encyclopedia, 1986.)

One of the earliest forms of Homo erectus ("Homo erectus"). Bone remains of Pithecanthropus (femur, incomplete cranial cover, teeth, fragments of the lower jaw) were first found in the beginning. 1890s Dutch physician E. Dubois on about. Java. He believed that he had discovered the "transitional link" from monkey to man, and called it "Pithecanthropus erectus". The Javanese Pithecanthropus was very similar in size and body shape to Homo sapiens, walked on two legs, as indicated by the structure of the femur, very similar to the femur of modern humans. At the same time, his skull was rather primitive (powerful brow ridge, sloping forehead, low arch, etc.). This discrepancy is characteristic of the evolution of ancient people and is associated with the very early acquisition of the ability to walk on two legs.
In 1936-1941. Also in Java, the Dutch geologist G. Königswald first found the remains of Pithecan-tropes together with stone tools, which undoubtedly proved that Pithecanthropes were human. Another, later Pithecanthropus was Sinanthropus. His skull had a more perfect structure (less sloping forehead, less massive lower jaw, etc.), which indicates a greater progressiveness of Sinanthropus in comparison with Pithecanthropus. In general, these differences are not fundamental. Pithecanthropus, Sinanthropus and similar forms belong to the group of the most ancient people - archantropus... During the period of their existence (more than 1.5 million years), the archanthropes mastered fire, were the creators of the Acheulean culture, represented by stone hand axes, cutting flakes and plates.

.(Source: "Biology. Modern illustrated encyclopedia." Ed. A. P. Gorkin; Moscow: Rosmen, 2006.)

See what "PITECANTHROPS" are in other dictionaries:

- (from the Greek pithekos monkey and anthropos man), the most ancient representatives of people (arhanthropus), whose fossils were found in Indonesia. The antiquity of most of the finds is about 800 500 thousand years. Sometimes the term Pithecanthropus ... ... Modern encyclopedia

Pithecanthropus- (from the Greek pithekos monkey and anthropos man), the most ancient representatives of people (arhanthropus), whose fossils were found in Indonesia. The antiquity of most of the finds is about 800 500 thousand years. Sometimes the term "Pithecanthropus" ... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (from the Greek pithekos monkey and anthropos man) the most ancient fossil people. Preceded by Neanderthals. Creators of Early Paleolithic Cultures. Antiquity approx. 500 thousand years. Bone remains have been found in Asia, Europe and Africa ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (from the Greek. píthēkos monkey and ánthrōpos man), the name of the archanthropus, the remains of which were found on about. Java. Age 1.5 0.5 million years. Other archanthropus are also called Pithecanthropus (Chinese Pithecanthropus, or Sinanthropus, Olduvai ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

pithecanthropus- the most ancient representatives of people (), whose fossils were found in Indonesia. The antiquity of most of the finds is about 800 500 thousand years. Sometimes the term "Pithecanthropus" is used as a synonym for Archanthropus ... Encyclopedic Dictionary " The World History»

- (from the Greek pithekos monkey and anthropos man), name. archantropus, the remains of which were found on the island. Java. Age 1.5 0.5 million years. P. are also called other arhanthropus (Chinese P., or Sinanthropus, Olduvai P., etc.) ... Natural science. encyclopedic Dictionary

- (gr. pithekos monkey + anthropos man) the most ancient people (arcanthropes), in the structure of the bones of the skull are still very close to anthropoids; The remains of Pithecanthropus were first found in the wounds of non-Quaternary deposits of Java Island in 1891 93. New Dictionary… … Vocabulary foreign words Russian language

Pithecanthropus- (Pithecanthropus) a genus sometimes allocated to designate archantropus. Described in 1894 (find of Pithecanthropus E. Dubois). Probably includes several species, including the most recognized: Working man (Pithecanthropus ergaster or Homo ... ... Physical Anthropology. Illustrated explanatory dictionary., Andrey Zubov. Zubov is convinced that it was religion, and not labor at all, that made man a man. In a lecture on prehistoric religions, he will tell about the history of man's awareness of his religiosity and diversity ... audiobook

Pithecanthropus is the name given to the most ancient people (1 million years old), found on the island. Java. Subsequently, Javanese Pithecanthropus, Sinanthropus (China), Heidelberg man (Europe) and a number of other "species" of ancient people were united under the name Homo erectus - Homo erectus. In the early Pleistocene (1.6 million years ago), "Homo erectus" - Homo erectus, formerly called Pithecanthropus, replaced the "skillful man"; it was at this time that Australopithecines completely die out. Approximately 1.2-1.0 million years ago, Homo erectus went beyond Africa and populated southern Asia and Europe, and disappeared 400 thousand years ago, making room for Homo sapiens.

None of the finds of the remains of the most ancient hominids caused such controversy and did not attract such attention as the find made by the Dutch anatomist and physician E. Dubois on the island of Java in 1891-1893. Inspired by Haeckel's prediction of the existence of a "transitional link" between ape and a man - Pithecanthropus, the young doctor abandoned his teaching career for the sake of a dream - to find the missing link. He enrolled as a ship's doctor on a warship and sailed to Sumatra. The sailors were rarely ill, and Dubois could take care of exploring the caves. However, the Sumatrans - local residents - avoided caves, believing that evil spirits had settled there, and Dubois decided to look for traces of Pithecanthropus along river beds in Java, where there were many animal bones along river valleys.

In 1891, he found a third upper molar, but believed that it belonged to a monkey, although the shape of the tooth, its length and protrusions were purely human. In 1892, in the valley of the river. Solo at the village of Trinil, he continued excavations at the site of the find of the tooth and found a skull cover, probably belonging to the same creature as the tooth. The heavy bone was dark in color due to mineralization. At 15 m from the occurrence of the skull, Dubois found a femur. It was the bone of a man, not a great ape. The length of the bone was 45.5 cm, from which it followed that the growth of the creature was 170 cm. The skull cover in shape and size occupied an intermediate position between a man and a great ape. The forehead was low, sloping, with supraorbital ridges, like those of monkeys. The occipital skull is flattened from above. The cranial cavity during reconstruction was found to be 900 cc. On the inner surface of the cranial cover, Dubois noticed the imprint of Broca's area, which is usually associated with the development of speech. The cast of the cranial cavity showed that in its structure it is much closer to the human than to the monkey type, but it has primitive features. The lower frontal lobe and parietal lobe are less developed in him than in modern humans. The femur is almost straight, not curved as in humans, the popliteal fossa is convex rather than flat. The owner of the femur had a less perfect gait than a person, but walked on two legs, erect.

In 1896, Dubois published a book in which he named his find Pithecanthropus erectus, erectus monkey-man. Haeckel called the supposed transitional link "dumb monkey-man," but judging by Brock's zone, he was not dumb. On the copy given to Haeckel, Dubois wrote "To the inventor of Pithecanthropus."

Arriving from Java, Dubois showed his discovery to prominent scientists - A. Kizsu, V. Woodworth, R. Virkhov. Many researchers did not accept the "missing link" explanation for the find. So, Virchow believed that the bone remains belonged to a giant gibbon, and Keyes believed that these are the remains of a degenerate person who was also hit on the skull, since the skull lid is too flat. In addition, an overgrowth of abnormal bone substance was found on the femur.

In 1895, the International Zoological Congress was held in the Netherlands, at which Pithecanthropus was in the spotlight. Twenty prominent professors put to a vote the question of whether the find belongs to a person, an intermediate creature or an ape. Opinions were divided, however, the femur was attributed to human by most scientists, and the teeth and cranial cover were attributed to an intermediate creature. It seemed to some that this was the lowest type of person, to others that it was a transitional form, a third of scientists believed that this was a dead-end branch of ancient people. Some believed that the lid and the thigh belonged to different individuals. After 10 years, Dubois, tired of the struggle, began to hide his find from everyone. At the end of his life, he himself decided that it really belongs to a giant gibbon. No tools with Pithecanthropus bones have been found.

In 1936 the young geologist G. Königswald decided to continue the search for Pithecanthropus in Java. Königswald was born in the USA, studied in Germany and went to work in the tropics of Southeast Asia in the same places where Dubois worked. Soon he found rough-cut tools with flaked blades. Königswald explored the site of Mojokerto near the town of Sangiran. From 1936 to 1941, he discovered the remains of a human fossil - three skulls and three lower jaws. One of the skulls from Mojokerto was a child's; this skull was the first of the open remains and immediately attracted attention by the similarity of the skull cap to the cap of Dubois' Pithecanthropus. The skull of Dubois's find gave the impression of extraordinary primitiveness due to its powerful supraorbital ridge, very low arch and sharp flattening of the parietal bones, and a strongly sloping forehead. These features bring the skull closer to the skulls of modern apes, however, the cerebral capacity is large and amounts to 900 cc, approaching the lower limit of the variation of this trait in modern humans. The femur was a stark contrast to the cranial cover, and was almost indistinguishable from the modern human femur. These contradictions became the sources of discussions around the Dubois find. The "child from Mojokerto", found by Konigswald, is represented only by a powerful brain box. In Sangiran Konigswald found a fragment of the lower jaw with premolars and molars, the cranial cover of an adult female, the parietal bones and a fragment of the occipital part of the skull of a young man, fragments of the skull of an adult male and two fragments of the lower jaw with teeth. The combination of a primitive skull structure with a progressive type of lower limb in Pithecanthropus is quite consistent with modern ideas about the features of the evolution of higher primates. Morphological features associated with the transformation of the type of locomotion, the transition to upright posture, outpaced the development of the skull and brain. A striking example of this is the Australopithecines, in which a small in volume and primitive in structure, the brain was combined with a bipedal gait and a completely human structure of the limbs.

In Padjistan, chipped stones were scattered along the bottom of a dried-up river bed. It was a cluster of early Paleolithic tools belonging to Pithecanthropus. For the most part, the Padjistani tools are very massive, roughly processed and represent choppers - choppers or more finely processed

Pithecanthropus (Pithecanthropus)- a genus sometimes allocated to designate archantropians. Described in 1894 (find of Pithecanthropus E. Dubois). Probably includes several types, including the most recognized:

"Working Man" (Pithecanthropus ergaster or Homo ergaster), "Straightened Man" (Pithecanthropus erectus or Homo erectus), "Heidelberg Man" (Pithecanthropus heidelbergensis or Homo heidelbergensis).

The time frame for the existence of Archantropus is approximately from 1700 to 500 or even 130 thousand years. Distributed throughout the Old World - in Africa (Bodo, Danakil, Bouri, Olduvai 9, Ndutu, Ternifin, etc.), Europe (Ceprano, Petralona, ​​Mauer, Verteshselles, etc.), Asia (Trinil, Sangiran, Zhoukoudian, Lantian, Nanching, etc.).

It differs from more progressive people in increased massiveness, large jaws and teeth, a smaller brain (700-1100 cm3).

One of the earliest representatives of this taxonomic group is the so-called. "Working man" (Homo ergaster or Pithecanthropus ergaster). These are the most ancient archanthropes.

The species was described in 1975 from the mandible KNM-ER 992 from Koobi Fora in Ethiopia. They originated in Africa about 1.8 or 1.7 million years ago from the "Early Homo", from which they differ in a large brain (770-900 cm3) and large body size (up to 1.8 m in height). About 1.4 million years ago, they evolved into the "Straightened Man" (see Fig. 1).

The most important finds were made at Koobi Fora in Ethiopia (for example, skulls KNM-ER 3733, KNM-ER 3883 and many other remains) and in Dmanisi (Georgia, found 3 skulls, 3 lower jaws and a metatarsal bone). These are the first people to go outside Africa. However, they did not leave the limits of the tropical belt. They used the tools of the Olduvai culture.

Literature: 1. Khrisanfova E.N., Perevozchikov I.V. Anthropology. M., 1999.

http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/brokgauz/16810

History of Pithecanthropus

There is an opinion (among Darwinists) that some Australopithecines as a result of evolution turned into Pithecanthropus. Previously, it was believed that these creatures appeared 900,000 - 1,000,000 years ago. Recent potassium-argon analysis of bone remains has extended this date to 1.9 million years. True, not all anthropologists believe in such an ancient age of Pithecanthropus. They refer to the imperfection of the research method. But the number of 1.6 million is considered undeniable. This is exactly the age in almost the entire skeleton of Pithecanthropus, found in 1984.

Let's take this date as the beginning of the Pithecanthropus era. Australopithecines coexisted with them for some time - until about 800,000 BC, then disappeared. Perhaps the Pithecanthropus exterminated their less fortunate competitors. Perhaps the Australopithecines disappeared for other reasons. But it is unlikely that they died out due to envy of more perfect creatures than themselves. And the Pithecanthropus, in terms of reason, were indeed more perfect than the Australopithecines. They have a much larger brain - 900 cc. see (2/3 of the volume of the human brain). Other organs, such as the hands, are also more human-like. And in size - height 160 cm, weight 80 kg - Pithecanthropus did not differ from people at all. For this reason, Pithecanthropus is often called archantropus ("ancient people"). Biologists also use the term Homo erectus, which means Homo erectus.

This creature was more skillful than Homo habilis. In addition to choppers, Pithecanthropus made egg-shaped pointed choppers that are easy to cut and chop. Flakes formed during the creation of a chopper were also used. They were used to make jibs for scraping skins from the remains of fat and meat. Trihedrons also appeared - perhaps it was a piercing tool. Unlike Homo habilis, who made tools only from quartzite, Pithecanthropus mastered the processing of harder flint. It is more difficult to make tools from flint, but they serve much longer. That. among Pithecanthropus we see the first ever struggle for the quality of products. Flint is much less common than quartzite, so that during the entire Stone Age it was one of the most valuable materials.

By the way, about the Stone Age. Historians and archaeologists often use names that characterize the level of technology to denote the earliest eras. So the time of the reign of Pithecanthropus is usually called the Early Paleolithic (i.e. "early stone age Rarely, the name of the era gives the place of the first discovery of weapons of a certain type. For this reason, the time of Homo habilis is called the Olduvian era, and the time of the Pithecanthropus is called the Acheulean era.

Pithecanthropus differed from Australopithecus not only in appearance and technology, but also in the way of obtaining food. They learned to get food together. These creatures invented driven hunting, and not only for small animals, but also for the largest. As a result, meat foods have become more varied. If the Australopithecines were content with small rodents, then the Pithecanthropus menu included deer, antelopes, horses, wild boars, bison, and even rhinos and mammoths. In addition, they tasted their closest relatives, the great apes. There is reason to believe that among the Pithecanthropus there was a phenomenon that causes indignation among modern civilized people - cannibalism. (True, history knows cases when "civilized" people perceived the commandment "love your neighbor" exclusively in the gastronomic aspect.) The growth of meat consumption led to an increase in the population. The hunger did not disappear at all, but more individuals survived. According to the estimates of the American demographer E. Divi, about 1,000,000 BC. 125,000 Pithecanthropus lived only in Africa - about the same number of inhabitants in modern Bendery, Mytishchi or Uzhgorod.

By hunting large animals, Pithecanthropus were able not only to improve their nutrition, but also to solve the housing problem. After killing saber-toothed tigers or cave bears, they occupied the vacated living space. Caves are more comfortable and safer quarters than Australopithecus nests or burrows. Safe housing has also contributed to population growth.

When the number of cave inhabitants reached a certain level, the danger increased internal conflicts... Fortunately, there were still unpopulated spaces around, where the herds disagreeing with the political course could have retired. And higher technological capabilities than those of Australopithecus allowed the settlers to survive in a new place. So Pithecanthropus were the first to begin to settle on the earth's surface. On the previous page, we mentioned that Australopithecines lived only in eastern Africa. Pithecanthropus also mastered the rest of the continent, and began to move to Asia and Europe. According to modern data, the settlement of Europe began no later than 1.300.000 BC.

The term resettlement does not mean that the Pithecanthropus suddenly got off the ground and rushed to distant lands. For the life of one generation, in search of the best hunting grounds, they did not go so far. But over hundreds of thousands of years, they crossed vast continents, reaching in the east to the lower reaches of the great Chinese rivers and the island of Java, and in the west to the Atlantic. In the new lands, Pithecanthropus settled not anywhere. No, they preferred tropical and subtropical zones, river and lake shores, seaside and mixed savannahs. They did not like deserts and high-mountainous regions, at least their remains were not found there. Paradoxically, but true - Pithecanthropus avoided the rainforests, where their ancestors came from.

Driven hunting demanded better understanding from Pithecanthropus. It is believed that the result was the emergence of the rudiments of speech in them, similar to a human - i.e. consisting not of sounds, but of words. At least the structure of their jaws and mouth muscles allowed them to speak. True, there could be no more words in their dictionary than in the dictionary of the notorious Ellochka the Cannibal.

However, we have not yet mentioned the main achievement of the Pithecanthropus. In this regard, Greek mythology comes to mind. The Greeks have a legend according to which the titan Prometheus brought fire to people, having stolen it from the sky from the Olympic gods. A beautiful legend! But in reality it was a little different. The Prometheans turned out to be Pithecanthropus, outwardly not as pretty as the ancient god. And the fire came from heaven itself. He came from the sky more than once or twice when lightning struck trees, causing forest fires. Fire also came from underground during volcanic eruptions. All living things fled from the fire in panic.

The Pithecanthropus were also afraid of fire. But they possessed the most advanced intelligence at that time. And one of the most important properties of the mind is insatiable curiosity. Curiosity is sometimes stronger than fear. Among the Pithecanthropus there were many daredevils who approached the fire to study its properties. They could notice that the fire not only burns, but also warms, not only blinds, but illuminates the darkness. They may have noticed that the fire ignites some objects and does not touch others. Someone of these researchers could have thought to set fire to branches or pieces of wood and spread them in a cave. Either for heating in cold weather, or to illuminate the darkness of the night, or to scare away predators.

Natural fire rarely occurs, so over time, Pithecanthropus learned to maintain it, giving fire new "food" - wood, branches and dry grass. According to the current understanding, the use of fire began 700,000 - 600,000 years ago. It happened somewhere in Europe or Asia. About 500,000 - 300,000 BC the use of fire on these continents has become commonplace. But the fire hit Africa much later.

At the very end of the Early Paleolithic, when life without fire began to seem impossible, Pithecanthropus learned to light a fire themselves - by rubbing two pieces of wood against each other, striking sparks from stone on tinder, or rotating a stick in a piece of wood. The use of fire was the second technological leap in human history, after the manufacture of weapons.

The discovery of the beneficial properties of fire came in handy - after 35 million years of a warm climate on Earth, the time of ice ages came. The first ice age - Gyntskiy, was from about 1,000,000 to 900,000 BC, the second - Mindelskiy, from 600,000 to 500,000 BC. The Gunz period was not too harsh. Ice covered only the northern regions. It was warm in southern Europe and most of Asia. But Mindelsky turned out to be more severe. Without external heating, the life of Pithecanthropus in many places would become very problematic. With fire, they were not only able to hold on to the conquered lines, but also to advance further. The cold snap forced them to come up with another way of heating - to put on the skins of the animals they killed. In other words, our heroes first had clothes.

Curiously, around the time fire began to be used, more advanced biological species appeared (830,000 - 710,000 years ago), which are called classical Pithecanthropus. They are characterized by an increased brain volume - more than 1000 cubic meters. see. Thanks to the fire, the Pithecanthropus moved even further north - to the Rhine and Danube valleys, to Britain, the North Caucasus and Altai.

(from the Greek pithekos - monkey and antropos - man) - the most ancient fossil people, the predecessors of the Neanderthals. Lived about 500 thousand years ago during the Early Paleolithic. Bone remains are found in Asia, Europe and Africa. PLEVE Vyacheslav Konstantinovich (1846-1904) - Russian statesman, senator (1902). Since 1881 - Director of the Police Department, in 1884-1894 gt. - Assistant Minister of Internal Affairs, since 1894 - Secretary of State and Chief Executive Officer of the codification unit under the State Council. Since 1889 - Minister, Secretary of State for Finnish Affairs. Since April 1902 - Minister of the Interior. He pursued an extremely reactionary policy, widely used repression. Killed by the Socialist-Revolutionary E. S. Sozonov.

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Pithecanthropus

A great achievement of advanced science in late XIX in. there were finds of the remains of even more highly organized creatures than Australopithecus. These remains date back entirely to the Quaternary period, which is divided into two stages: the Pleistocene, which lasted approximately until the VIII-VII millennia BC. NS. and covering preglacial and glacial times, and modern stage(Holocene). These discoveries fully confirmed the views of the leading naturalists of the 19th century. and the theory of F. Engels about the origin of man.

The first was found the most ancient of all known now primitive man-Pithecanthropus (literally "monkey man"). The bones of Pithecanthropus were first discovered as a result of persistent searches, which continued from 1891 to 1894, by the Dutch physician E. Dubois near Trinil, on the island of Java. Going to South Asia, Dubois set out to find the remains of the transitional form from ape to man, since the existence of such a form followed from the evolutionary theory of Darwin. Dubois's discoveries more than met his expectations and hopes. The skull cover and femur he found immediately showed the enormous significance of the Trinil finds, since one of the most important links in the human development chain was discovered.

In 1936, the skull of a Pithecanthropus child was found in Mojokerto, also in Java. There were also bones of animals, including, it is believed, somewhat more ancient, of the Lower Pleistocene time. In 1937, local residents brought the most complete Pithecanthropus skull cap with temporal bones to the Bandung Geological Laboratory from Sangiran, and then other remains of Pithecanthropus were found in Sangiran, including two more skulls. In total, the remains of at least seven individuals of Pithecanthropus are currently known.

As its name shows, Pithecanthropus (ape-man) connects the ancient highly developed apes of the Australopithecus type with the primitive man of a more developed type. This significance of Pithecanthropus is most fully evidenced by the skulls from the finds in Trinil and Sangiran. These turtles combine specific monkeys and pure human traits... The former include such features as the peculiar shape of the skull, with a pronounced interception in the front of the forehead, near the orbits, and a massive, wide supraorbital ridge, traces of a longitudinal ridge on the crown of the head, a low vault of the skull, i.e., an inclined forehead, and a large thickness cranial bones. But at the same time, Pithecanthropus was already a completely bipedal creature. The volume of his brain (850-950 cubic cm) was 1.5-2 times greater than that of modern apes. However, in terms of general proportions and the degree of development of individual lobes of the brain, Pithecanthropus was closer to anthropoids than to humans.

The remains of plants, including perfectly preserved leaves and even flowers, found in the sediments directly overlying the bone-bearing Trinilian layer, show that Pithecanthropus lived in a forest of trees that still grow in Java, but in a somewhat cooler climate. now at an altitude of 600-1 200 m above sea level. This forest was home to citrus and laurel trees, fig trees and other subtropical plants. Together with Pithecanthropus, the Trinil forest was inhabited by many different animals of the southern belt, whose bones survived in the same bone layer. During the excavations, most of all were found horns of two species of antelope and a deer, as well as teeth and fragments of skulls of wild pigs. There were also bones of bulls, rhinos, monkeys, hippos, tapirs. There were also found the remains of ancient elephants, close to the European ancient elephant, predators - a leopard and a tiger.

It is believed that all of these animals, whose bones were found in the Trinil sediments, died as a result of a volcanic catastrophe. During the eruption of the volcano, the wooded slopes of the hills were covered and burned by a mass of red-hot volcanic ash. Then the torrents of rain poured deep channels into the loose ash mass and carried the bones of thousands of dead animals into the Trinil Valley; thus the bone layer of Trinil was formed. Something similar took place during the eruption of the Klut volcano in the eastern part of Java in 1852. According to eyewitnesses, the large navigable river Brontas, which skirted the volcano, swelled and rose high. Its water contained at least 25% volcanic ash mixed with pumice. The color of the water was completely black, and it carried such a mass of dumped forest, as well as the corpses of animals, including buffaloes, monkeys, turtles, crocodiles, even tigers, that the bridge on the river, the largest of all bridges on the island of Java.

Along with other inhabitants of the tropical forest, Pithecanthropus, whose bones were found in Trinil, apparently fell victim to a similar catastrophe in ancient times. These special conditions, with which the Trinilian finds are associated, and probably the finds of Pithecanthropus bones elsewhere in Java, explain why there were no signs of Pithecanthropus use of tools there.

If the bone remains of Pithecanthropus were found in places of temporary camps, then the presence of tools would be very likely. Anyway, judging by general level physical structure Pithecanthropus, it should be assumed that he already made tools and constantly used them, including not only wood, but also stone. An indirect proof that Pithecanthropus made stone tools of labor is the rough quartzite products found in the south of Java, near Patjitan, together with the remains of the same animals whose bones were found at Trinil in the same layer of sediments with the bones of Pithecanthropus.

Thus, it can be concluded that with Pithecanthropus and creatures close to him, the initial period in the formation of man ends. This was, as we have seen, that very distant time when our ancestors led a herd way of life and only began to move from the use of ready-made objects of nature to the manufacture of tools.

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Has led to the fact that modern man came out on new round its history. Comparing the first subspecies of people and the modern inhabitant of the Earth, one can be amazed at which way to be done, and how much was achieved in a relatively short period of time for history.

The emergence of the term

To answer the question of who the Pithecanthropus are, you should take a closer look at the term itself. It was invented in the 19th century by Ernst Haeckel. The time of the term fell on such a period in science, when there were not yet a large number of fossil finds that could give more detailed and accurate characteristics of the first people. However, even then, scientists gradually came to the conclusion that man is the ancestor of long-extinct animals. Haeckel decided to describe, but he had to be named somehow. He decided to combine the words "man" and "monkey" so that it was clear that something in between was meant. It should be noted that it was this German scientist who insisted that ancestors should be sought in the southeastern part of Asia.

Confirmation of Ernst Haeckel's theory

Ernst Haeckel was right. His words were confirmed and proved by the Dutch scientist Eugene Dubois. He went on a scientific expedition to the swamps of Indonesia in order to find the very middle link that connected man and ape. The first four years of his search were unsuccessful, however, luck smiled at him too. He found a cranium, a hipbone and two molars on the island of Eva. The creature whose remains he found combined the properties of both a man and a monkey. Dubois decided to independently name his find - erect ape-man.

After that, the entire scientific world celebrated its victory. Many expeditions were organized to the island of Eva, where scientists discovered the remains of about 20 adults. Since the last century, scientists have regularly come across the bones of Pithecanthropus around the world.

A lot of finds on a territorial basis belong to Africa. This is not surprising, since most of the remains of the ape-man were found there. In 1955, a fragment of the skull and jaw of a hominid was found in Algeria, which closely resembled Pithecanthropus. Along with this, the remains of animals were found: a giraffe, an elephant, a rhinoceros. Interestingly, stone tools were also found.

Who are Pithecanthropus?

The word Pithecanthropus translated from Greek and the decomposition of the word into two components means "man" and "monkey". The synonym for this term is the phrase "Javanese man". So who are Pithecanthropus? Pithecanthropus is a subspecies of people, which, according to some opinions, is recognized as something in between Australopithecines and Neanderthals on the evolutionary ladder. Scientists have estimated the time gap in the existence of this type of people at 1 million 700 thousand years.

Modern scientists consider this subspecies of people as a local replacement for Homo erectus, which is located in Southeast Asia. This subspecies did not give birth to the direct ancestors of modern man.

Turkana boy

Turkan is a beautiful lake located in Kenya. The area was extensively excavated in 1968 under the supervision of Richard Leakey. In 1984, the western shore of the lake presented the scientist with a unique specimen - the skeleton of a boy about 12 years old. It is established that the boy lived about 1 million 600 thousand years ago! The skull and jaw bones were similar to the bone structure of the Neanderthals, but all the other bones were like those of modern humans. It is interesting that his height was 170 cm, and this despite the fact that he was only 12 years old!

The eastern birches of Lake Turkan delighted scientists with the findings of Pithecanthropus. In 1982, due to the large number of Pithecanthropus remains found, a postage stamp was issued with their image.

Finds around the world

Pithecanthropus are ancient people who left traces of their existence all over the globe. Europe also boasts a number of discoveries. Scientists have found a lower jaw that most likely belonged to a young and strong man. The find was made near Heidelberg, Germany. In all respects, this find was ranked among the finds of the remains of Pithecanthropus. In Hungary in 1965, a massive occipital bone was found, which also belonged to Pithecanthropus. In Nice (France), scientists have discovered a whole Pithecanthropus site called Terra Amata. There were found large They consisted of branches, which rested on one strong pillar covered with skin. The dwellings were very spacious, reaching 15 m in length and 5 m in width. Inside the dwelling one could find the remains of hearths made of many stones. By the way, this very find is the earliest evidence that they knew how to handle fire. By the end of the existence of this species, fire was used by them everywhere. Perhaps this was influenced by climate change towards a cooling.

As for the time chain, it should be said that the first Pithecanthropus lived in Africa about 1.7 million years ago. At first, they did not want to leave their homes, but for about 1.2 million years they have been actively moving to the territory of Eurasia. And only about 700,000 years ago Pithecanthropus visited Europe.

Appearance

Pithecanthropus Neanderthal had a height of over 1.5 m. Like a modern man, Pithecanthropus walked on two legs, but due to the structural features of the skeleton, his gait resembled a "waddling". If we take into account the general structure, then the ancient man of this subspecies was very similar to modern man, with the exception of the bones of the skull, which retained multiple archaic elements: a sloping forehead, a massive lower jaw, large teeth, protruding eyebrows. Due to the fact that the chin protrusion was not found, it is believed that he could not speak, but could make sounds and communicate using them. The structure of the brain itself has also become noticeably more complex in comparison with previous species. Australopithecus Pithecanthropus possessed a rapidly developing brain, although some head divisions grew unevenly.

Pithecanthropus labor

Australopithecus, Neanderthal, Pithecanthropus - all of them are representatives of ancient people, but evolved in their own period of time, and made different progress. Pithecanthropus is considered the closest in many parameters to modern man than the other two subspecies.

The Pithecanthropus managed to make a hand ax - a piece of flint, which is chipped on both sides and is a rough and massive tool. It is approximately 20 cm long and weighs 0.5 kg. The chopper has a fairly well-defined shape, the working part and the handle are well separated. Having found a chopper, it is difficult to confuse it with an ordinary stone of a bizarre shape, which is typical for many tools of other subspecies of ancient people. It is this tool that is most often found in the villages of Pithecanthropus, but it is not the only one. They have piercers (for piercing something) and scrapers (for working with wood and bone) made of flint. They also made wooden tools, which, however, are poorly preserved to this day due to the natural properties of wood. However, the tools trapped in the peat layer have survived enough to be studied.

In Germany, the yew spear of Pithecanthropus was discovered, which was intended to kill an elephant. The length of this weapon is 215 cm, while the sharp end is treated with fire for better strength. Since studies have shown that the center of gravity is at the bottom of the gun, they used it, most likely, as a pike, and not a throwing device. Also, scientists often find clubs and diggers that were used in everyday life.

Pithecanthropus life

It was simple, ordinary and primitive, but very dangerous. It is known that these human ancestors lived in villages. They created something like families, but their huge dwellings indicate that the family was different from the modern one. Several generations have lived in the dwelling for many years in a row. At the same time, there was a special division into who was whose partner was not. Of course, if someone defended his female and showed aggression, then she was not touched.

Pithecanthropus, who was rather primitive, still knew how to hunt and get food for himself and his family. made tools that helped them kill large and strong representatives of the animal world. Most of the life of the male Pithecanthropus was spent hunting. The women remained in their homes, sat with the children, prepared medicines to heal the returning hunters.

The opinion of modern scientists

To date, scientists are not inclined to really recognize Pithecanthropus as the ancestor of modern man. For the scientific world, this subspecies of people is an isolated, but rather developed group of people who were lucky enough to survive until the appearance of the first modern humans.

Nevertheless, research and excavations continue, and it is possible that something new will be found that will confirm or refute the opinion of today's researchers.

Summing up some results, it is worth noting that Pithecanthropus, a photo of which can be found in a history textbook, was a human ancestor. But it is important to understand that he was far from the ancestor of man in his modern guise. Pithecanthropus were just an intermediate link that took their temporary niche and developed in accordance with the conditions environment and your own needs. It should be understood that discoveries are made almost every year, so it is not known what we will know in the future about who Pithecanthropus are and how this will change our understanding of human ancestors.