Who are Pithecanthropus? The way of life, characterization and evolution of the most ancient people

The long evolution of man has led to the fact that modern man has entered a new round of his history. Comparing the first subspecies of people and the modern inhabitant of the Earth, one can be amazed at the way to be done, and how much has been achieved in a relatively short period of time for history.

The emergence of the term

To answer the question of who these Pithecanthropes are, you should get acquainted with the term itself. It was coined in the XIX century by Ernst Haeckel. Time of the term had to be for such a period in science, when there was still not a lot 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 the ancestor of man, but he had to somehow call it. He decided to combine the words "man" and "monkey", so that it was clear that something mean is meant. It should be noted that it was this German scholar who insisted that ancestors should be sought in the southeast of Asia.

Confirmation of the theory of Ernst Haeckel

Ernst Haeckel was right. His words were able to confirm and prove the Dutch scientist Eugene Dubois. He went on a scientific expedition to the swamps of Indonesia in order to find the middle link that connected man and monkey. The first four years of his search were unsuccessful, however, luck also smiled at him. He found a skull, a hip bone and two molars on the island of Eva. The creature, whose remains he found, combined the properties of both man and monkey. Dubois decided to name his own find himself - a monkey-faced man.

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

A lot of finds on the territorial basis belong to Africa. This is not surprising, because 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 was very similar to the Pithecanthropus. Along with this, the remains of animals were found: a giraffe, an elephant, a rhinoceros. Interestingly, stone tools were also discovered.

Who are Pithecanthropus?

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

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

The boy from Turkana

Turkan is a beautiful lake, which is located in Kenya. In this area, large-scale excavations were carried out in 1968 under the supervision of Richard Leakey. In 1984, the western shore of the lake gave the scientist a unique sample - the skeleton of a boy of about 12 years. It is established that the boy lived about 1 million 600 thousand years ago! The cranial and maxillary bones looked like the bone structure of the Neanderthals, but all the other bones were like modern humans. Interestingly, his height was 170 cm, and this despite the fact that the age of only 12 years!

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

Findings around the world

Pithecanthropus are ancient people who have left traces of their existence around the globe. Europe also boasts a number of discoveries. The scientists found the lower jaw, which, most likely, belonged to a young and strong man. The find was made near Heidelberg, Germany. In all respects, this finding was reckoned among the remains of Pithecanthropus. In Hungary in 1965, a massive occipital bone was found, which also belonged to the Pithecanthropus. In Nice (France), scientists discovered a whole camp of Pithecanthropus called Terra-Amata. There were found large dwellings of ancient people. They formed from branches, which rested on one strong column, covered with a skin. The dwellings were very spacious, and reached 15 m in length and 5 m in width. Inside the dwelling you could find the remains of hearths laid out of many stones. By the way, this find is the earliest evidence that ancient people knew how to handle fire. By the time of the decline of the existence of this species, fire was used by them everywhere. Perhaps this was influenced by climate change in the direction of 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 place of violence, 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, the Neanderthal man, was more than 1.5 m tall. Like the modern man, the Pithecanthropus walked on two legs, but because of the skeleton's structure, his gait was reminiscent of "wagtail". If you take into account the general structure, the ancient man of this subspecies was very similar to the modern person except for the skull bones, which retained multiple archaic elements: a sloping forehead, a massive lower jaw, large teeth, prominent superciliary arches. Due to the fact that the chin protrusion was not found, it is commonly believed that he could not speak, but he could make sounds and communicate with them. The structure of the brain itself has become much more complicated than in the previous species. Australopithecus pithecanthropus possessed a rapidly developing brain, although some of the head branches grew unevenly.

The work of Pithecanthropus

Australopithecus, Neanderthal, Pithecanthropus - they are all representatives of ancient people, but developed in their time, and made different progress. Pithecanthropus is considered to be the closest in many parameters to a modern person than the other two subspecies.

Pithecanthropus managed to make a manual chopper - a piece of flint, which is broken on both sides and represents a rough and massive gun. It is about 20 cm long and weighs 0.5 kg. The chopper has a rather traced shape, the working part and the handle are well separated. Finding a chopper, it is difficult to confuse it with a usual quaint stone, which is typical for many tools of other subspecies of ancient people. It is this weapon that most often occurs in the villages of Pithecanthropus, but it is not the only one. They have piercings (for piercing something) and scraping (for working with wood and bone) from flint. They also made wooden tools, which, however, have been poorly preserved to this day because of the natural properties of the tree. However, the tools that have fallen into the peat layer have been preserved sufficiently to study them.

In Germany, there was found a yew pike of Pithecanthropus, which was intended to kill an elephant. The length of this tool 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, it was probably used as a peak, rather than a throwing device. Also, scientists often find truncheons and diggers, which were used in everyday life.

Life of Pithecanthropus

The life of the ancient man was simple, ordinary and primitive, but very dangerous. It is known that these ancestors of man lived in villages. They created something like families, but their huge dwellings indicate that the family was different from the modern one. In the dwelling lived several generations for many years. At the same time, there is a special division for who did not have a partner. Of course, if someone defended their female and showed aggression, then they did not touch her.

Pithecanthropus, whose way of life was quite primitive, still knew how to hunt and get food for himself and the family. Ancient people made tools that helped them kill large and powerful representatives of the animal world. A large part of the life of the male representative of the Pithecanthropus went hunting. The women stayed in the dwellings, sat with the children, prepared the drugs to treat the returning hunters.

The opinion of modern scholars

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

Nevertheless, research and excavations are continuing, and perhaps something new will be found that will confirm or disprove the opinion of today's researchers.

Summing up some results, it is worth noting that the Pithecanthropus, whose photo can be found in the history textbook, was the ancestor of man. But it is important to understand that he was far away from the ancestor of man in modern guise. Pithecanthropus was simply an intermediate link that took its temporary niche and developed in accordance with environmental conditions and its own needs. It should be understood that discoveries are made almost every year, so it is not known what will happen to us in the future about who such Pithecanthropes are and how this will change our perception of the ancestors of man.