- Eugène Dubois
Marie Eugène François Thomas Dubois (
28 January 1858 –16 December 1940 ) was a Dutchanatomist . He earned world-wide fame for his discovery of "Pithecanthropus erectus" (later redesignated "Homo erectus"), or 'JavaMan'.Biography
Dubois was born in
Eijsden ,Netherlands ,Europe .Human discoveries
Although hominid fossils had been found and studied before, Dubois was the first anthropologist to embark upon a purposeful search for them. He was convinced that the origins of the human species must be in the tropics. For this reason he joined the Dutch army in the
Dutch East Indies (the Dutch colony that would later become independentIndonesia ).Between 1886 and 1895, Dubois searched at potential sites near rivers and in caves, first on the island of
Sumatra , then on theIndonesia n island of Java.In 1891, Dubois discovered remains of what he described as "a species in between humans and apes". He called his finds "Pithecanthropus erectus" ("ape-human which stood upright") or
Java Man . Today, they are classified as "Homo erectus " ("human which stood upright"). ["Eugene Dubois". Retrieved on 2008-06-02 from http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/abcde/dubois_eugene.html.] These were the first specimens of early hominid remains to be found outside of Africa or Europe.In 1895, Dubois returned to Europe and toured the continent to convince his colleagues that he had indeed found a missing link. Although most anthropologists were intrigued, they did not always agree with Dubois' interpretations. After that, Dubois refused others access to his fossils, until he was forced to do so in 1923.
Later years
In 1897, the
University of Amsterdam awarded Dubois a honorary doctorate in botany and zoology, but he had to wait until 1899 for a professorship. In that year, he was appointed a professor ingeology , a function that did not keep him from his research inanatomy . He was also (from 1897 until 1928) keeper ofpaleontology , geology andmineralogy at Teylers' Museum, where he also kept the "H. erectus" remains.Although the scientific debate slowly began to turn in his favour in the 1920s and 1930s, he died embittered in 1940.Fact|date=June 2008 He was buried in
Venlo .Fact|date=June 2008ee also
*
List of fossil sites "(with link directory)"
* List of hominina (hominid) fossils "(with images)"References
Further Reading
*Pat Shipman, "The Man who Found the Missing Link. Eugène Dubois and His Lifelong Quest to Prove Darwin Right" (New York etc: Simon and Schuster, 2001). A partly romanticized biography of Dubois, not annotated, with index.
External links
* [http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/edubois.html Biographies: Eugene Dubois ] at www.talkorigins.org
* [http://www.strangescience.net/dubois.htm Rocky Road: Eugene Dubois ] at www.strangescience.net
* http://www.cryingvoice.com/Evolution/ApeMen2.html
* [http://www.understandingevolution.com/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/history_17 Fossil Hominids, Human Evolution: Thomas Huxley & Eugene Dubois ] at www.understandingevolution.com
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