Pithecanthropus distinctive features. Who are Pithecanthropes? Way of life, characteristics and evolution of the most ancient people. Finds around the world

International scientific name

Homo erectus erectus (Dubois, 1892)

Synonyms

Pithecanthropus erectus Dubois, 1894
Anthropopithecus javenensis
Hylobates giga Krause, 1895
Hylobates giganteus Bumüller, 1899

Discovery history

Term Pithecanthropus(Pithecantropus) was first proposed in 1866 by Ernst Haeckel as a designation for a hypothetical intermediate between ape and man.

The danger that lay in wait for the Pithecanthropes at every turn forced them to live in large families, or more or less large stable associations, in relation to which the concept of “primitive herd” or ancestral community.

A study of the tool materials of camps in Africa showed that the latter, as a rule, were permanent. Judging by the spaciousness of the dwellings known to modern scientists, several generations of a large family could coexist in one room for a long time. Life in large groups facilitated the hunting of large animals, distinguished by remarkable strength and speed of movement. In addition to hunting, pithecanthropes could engage in fishing, most often catching fish with their bare hands.

According to scientists, skirmishes often occurred in the Pithecanthropus society, often leading to the death of certain members of the community, and in times of famine, cannibalism was common. In order to coexist peacefully even in such a primitive society, considerable efforts had to be made to curb primitive instincts. It was for this purpose that it was necessary to develop some generally accepted norms of behavior, which made it possible to move to a new stage in the development of coexistence for all relatives. To control the implementation of such specific rules, there is a need for leaders who were assigned a leading role.

Unlike modern people, at an early stage, the Pithecanthropes did not yet have strict sexual restrictions and, in fact, promiscuity dominated. However, at a later stage, stable married couples could periodically arise in their herds, and some male, showing aggression towards his fellow tribesmen, chose a specific female, as is artistically described in Jack London's historical story "Before Adam" (1907).

According to the French anthropologist A. Valois and the Soviet scientist A.V. Nemilov, in the early Paleolithic, due to the consequences of the transition to upright posture, which caused complications during childbirth, the life expectancy of female pithecanthropes was significantly lower than that of males, due to which the number of the latter in primitive human collectives exceeded the number of the first.

If most of the life of males was occupied by hunting or clashes due to personal rivalry, females were engaged in everyday life, raising children, caring for the wounded and sick. The inclusion of meat in the daily diet of Pithecanthropus helped solve the problem of providing the body with reliable sources of replenishment of the energy reserve necessary to perform hard physical work. And the use of various plants for food was an excellent way to learn their healing properties, which can be considered the first steps towards healing.

Science has the facts of the manifestation by Pithecanthropes of collective care for sick fellow tribesmen. So, on the Pithecanthropus femur discovered by Dubois on the island of Java, there are pronounced changes in bone tissue (exostosis). Obviously, without the support of relatives, this lame, with limited opportunities for self-defense, the individual would inevitably die, but he lived, remaining a cripple, long years.

Even in those distant primitive times, Pithecanthropus begins to realize the importance of hygienic skills, such as removing the remains of eaten animals from dwellings or burying dead relatives. But at that stage in the development of mankind, in the absence of abstract thinking, all this was done without special rituals or the creation of a funeral cult.

material culture

Unlike Australopithecus, the hands of Pithecanthropes were already able to superficially process wood, bone and stone. Working on the creation of primitive tools, the Pithecanthropes had to gradually bring to perfection the stones that were split in a natural way or split them on their own, make chips and flakes on them.

There is no direct evidence that Pithecanthropus made tools, since the bone remains on the island of Java were found in a redeposited state, which excludes the discovery of contemporary tools. On the other hand, in the same layers and with the same fauna as the finds of Pithecanthropus, finds of archaic tools similar to the Acheulian culture were made. In addition, among the later finds (Sinanthropus, Heidelberg man, Atlanthropus) belonging to the same species Homo erectus or close species ( Homo heidelbergensis, Homo ergaster, Homo antecessor), tools of the same culture as the Javanese were found. Therefore, there is reason to think that Javanese tools were made by Pithecanthropes.

Along with stone ones, pithecanthropes were able to make primitive tools from bones and horns, use wooden clubs and pointed branches as spears.

Scientists do not have convincing data to argue that pithecanthropes were able, like sinanthropes, to produce or maintain fire on their own, but they undoubtedly knew how to use it. In addition to protection from the cold, predators, and cooking, the mastery of fire made herds of pithecanthropes less dependent on the climate and more mobile.

Pithecanthropus and modern humans

While the majority of Soviet anthropologists were of the opinion that Pithecanthropes were an intermediate link between Australopithecus and people of the genus Homo, modern researchers are not inclined to consider them the ancestors of modern people. Apparently they were a distant and isolated population. Homo erectus, which, under the conditions of Indonesia, survived until the appearance of modern people and died out about 27 thousand years ago [ ] .

Rice. I. 7. Olduvai culture of the Lower Paleolithic. Pithecanthropes
(earliest people, archanthropes)

Pithecanthropes - This is the second stadial group of hominids after Australopithecus. In this aspect, in the specialized literature they are often referred to (all variants of the group) as "archanthropes", i.e. "the most ancient people"; here you can also add the definition of "true people", since the belonging of Pithecanthropus to the family of hominids is not disputed by any of the anthropologists. Previously, some researchers combined Pithecanthropus with Neanderthals in one evolutionary stage.

Pithecanthropus finds are known in three parts of the world - Africa, Asia and Europe. Their ancestors were representatives of Homo habilis (later East African representatives of this species are often referred to as Homo rudolfensis). The time of existence of pithecanthropes (including the earliest ones, Homo ergaster) can be represented in the interval of 1.8 million years - less than 200 thousand years. The most ancient representatives of the stage were discovered in Africa (1.6 million years - 1.8 million years); since the turn of 1 million years, they have been common in Asia, and since 0.5 million years, pithecanthropes (often referred to as "preneanderthals", or representatives of Homo heidelbergensis) lived in Europe. The almost worldwide distribution of pithecanthropes can be explained by their rather high level of biological and social development. The evolution of various groups of Pithecanthropes occurred at different speeds, but had one direction - towards the sapiens type.

For the first time, the bone fragments of Pithecanthropus were discovered by the Dutch doctor E. Dubois on about. Java in 1891. It is noteworthy that the author of the find shared the concept of an “intermediate link” in the human genealogy, which belonged to the Darwinist E. Haeckel. Near the village of Trinil were found (successively) the upper molar, the skull cap and the femur. The archaic character of the cranial cover is impressive: a sloping forehead and a powerful supraorbital ridge and a completely modern type of femur. The layers containing the Trinil fauna date back to 700 thousand years ago (currently 500 thousand years). In 1894, G. Dubois first gave a scientific description of "Pitpecanthropus erectus" ("monkey-man erectus"). Some European scientists met such a phenomenal discovery with distrust, and Dubois himself often did not believe in its significance for science.

With an interval of 40 years, other finds of Pithecanthropes were made on about. Java and elsewhere. In the layers of Pungat with the fauna of Dzhetis near the village of Mojokerto, a baby skull of Pithecanthropus was discovered. The age of the find is close to 1 million years. Findings of bones of the skull and skeleton were made in the Sangiran locality (ancient about 800 thousand years) during 1936-1941. The next series of finds near Sangiran refers to the period 1952-1973. The most interesting find was the skull of a Pithecanthropus with a preserved facial section of the skull, made in 1963. The remains of a Paleolithic culture on about. Java not found.

A fossil man similar to Pithecanthropus was found in the Middle Pleistocene deposits of China. The teeth of Sinanthropus (Chinese Pithecanthropus) were discovered in the limestone cave of Zhoukou-dian in 1918. The collection of random finds was replaced by excavations, and in 1937 the remains of more than 40 Sinanthropus individuals were discovered in this location (Fig. 1.8). The description of this variant of Pithecanthropus was first made by the Canadian specialist Vlekom. The absolute dating of Sinanthropus is estimated at 400-500 thousand years. The bone remains of Sinanthropus are accompanied by numerous cultural

Rice. I. 8. Skull of the Chinese Pithecanthropus (0.4 Ma)

remains (stone tools, crushed and burnt animal bones). Of greatest interest is the multi-meter thickness of ash found in the hunting camp of Sinanthropus. The use of fire for processing food made it more digestible, and the long-term maintenance of a fire indicates a fairly high level of development of social relations among Sinanthropes.

Multiple finds allow us to confidently speak about the reality of the Pithecanthropus taxon. Here are the main features of its morphotype. The modern type of the femurs and the position of the foramen magnum, similar to what we see on modern skulls, testify to the undoubted adaptation of Pithecanthropus to upright posture. The overall massiveness of the Pithecanthropus skeleton is greater than that of Australopithecus. Numerous archaic features are observed in the structure of the skull: a highly developed relief, a sloping frontal region, massive jaws, pronounced prognathism of the facial region. The walls of the skull are thick, the lower jaw is massive and wide, the teeth are large, while the size of the canine is close to modern. A highly developed occipital relief is associated with the development of the cervical muscles, which played a significant role in balancing the skull when walking. Estimates of the size of the brain of Pithecanthropes given in modern literature vary from 750 to 1350 cm3, i.e., approximately correspond at a minimum to the lower threshold of values given for australopithecines of the habilis type. Previously compared species were attributed a significant difference. The structure of the endocranes testified to the complication of the structure of the brain: the areas of the parietal region, the lower frontal and upper posterior parts of the frontal region are developed to a greater extent in Pithecanthropes, which is associated with the development of specific human functions - labor and speech. On the endocranes of synanthropes, new growth foci were found associated with the assessment of body position, speech, and fine movements.

Sinanthropus is somewhat different in type from Pithecanthropus. The length of its body was about 150 cm (Pithecanthropus - up to 165-175 cm), the dimensions of the skull were increased, but the type of structure was the same, with the exception of a weakened occipital relief. The skeleton of Sinanthropus is less massive. Noteworthy is the graceful lower jaw. The volume of the brain is more than 1000 cm3. The difference between the Sinanthropus and the Javanese Pithecanthropus is assessed at the subspecies level.

The nature of food residues, as well as the structure of the lower jaws, indicates a change in the type of feeding of synanthropes towards omnivorousness, which is a progressive sign. Sinanthropus is likely to have cannibalism. On the question of their ability to make fire, archaeologists disagreed.

Analysis of human bone remains of this phase of anthropogenesis allows us to reconstruct the age and sex composition of synanthropus groups: 3-6 males, 6-10 females and 15-20 children.

The comparative complexity of culture requires a sufficiently high level of communication and mutual understanding, therefore, it is possible to predict the existence of primitive speech at this time. The biological basis for such a prognosis can be considered an increase in the bone relief in the places of attachment of the muscles of the tongue, the beginning of the formation of the chin, and the gracilization of the lower jaws.

Fragments of skulls of antiquity, commensurate with the early Pithecanthropes of Fr. Java (approximately 1 million years old), found in two provinces of China - Lantian, Kuvanlin. It is interesting that the more ancient Chinese Pithecanthropus differ from the Sinanthropes in the same way as the early Pithecanthropes from the later ones, namely, the greater massiveness of the bones and the smaller size of the brain. Late progressive Pithecanthropus include a recent find in India. Here, together with Late Acheulean tools, a skull with a volume of 1300 cm3 was found.

The reality of the existence of the Pithecanthropus stage in anthropogenesis is practically not disputed. True, the later representatives of the Pithecanthropes are considered the ancestors of subsequent, more progressive forms. The question of the time and place of the appearance of the first Pithecanthropus has been widely discussed in science. Previously, Asia was considered its homeland, and the time of appearance was estimated at about 2 million years. Now this issue is resolved differently. Africa is considered the birthplace of both Australopithecus and Pithecanthropus. In 1984, in Kenya (Nariokotome), a 1.6-million-year-old Pithecanthropus (complete skeleton of a teenager) was discovered. The main finds of the earliest pithecanthropes in Africa are: Koobi Fora (1.6 million years), South African Swartkrans (1.5 million years), Olduvai (1.2 million years). African pithecanthropes of the Mediterranean coast (Ternifin) have an antiquity of 700 thousand years. The geological antiquity of the Asian variants can be estimated at 1.3-0.1 million years. Archaeological evidence from sites in the Middle East, closer to Africa than to Asia, is known, suggesting that the antiquity of African pithecanthropes could reach 2 million years.

The synchronous forms of the fossil man from Europe are younger and rather peculiar. They are often referred to as "pre-Neanderthals" or referred to as Homo heidelbergensis, which in Africa, Europe and Asia was ancestral to modern humans and the Neanderthals of Europe and Asia. European forms have the following age: Mauer (500 thousand years), Arago (400 thousand years), Petralona (450 thousand years), Atapuerca (300 thousand years). Broken Hill (300 thousand years) and Bodo (600 thousand years) have a transitional evolutionary character in Africa.

In the Caucasus, the most ancient find in Georgia is the Dmanisi man, whose antiquity is estimated at 1.6-1.8 million years. Anatomical features make it possible to put it on a par with the most ancient hominids of Africa and Asia! Pithecanthropes were also found in other sites: in Uzbekistan (Sel-Ungur), in the North Caucasus (Kudaro), Ukraine. A form intermediate between Pithecanthropes and Neanderthals was found in Azerbaijan (Azykh). The Acheulean man apparently lived on the territory of Armenia (Yerevan).

Early pithecanthropes differ from later ones in greater massiveness of bones and a smaller brain size. A similar difference is observed in Asia and Europe.

In the Paleolithic, the Acheulean corresponds to the physical type of Pithecanthropus and early Neanderthals. The leading tool of the ashel is a hand ax (Fig. I. 9). It demonstrates high level in the development of stone processing technology. Within the limits of the Acheulian era, one can observe an increase in the thoroughness of finishing axes: the number of chips from the surface of the tool increases. The surface finish becomes finer when stone chippers are replaced with softer ones made of bone, horn or wood. The size of a hand ax reached 35 cm. It was made from stone by chipping on both sides. The ax had a pointed end, two longitudinal blades and a raw opposite edge. It is believed that the ax had various functions: it served as a percussion instrument, was used for digging up roots, dismembering animal corpses, and processing wood. In the southern regions, an ax (jib) is found, which is distinguished by a transverse blade, not corrected by retouching, and symmetrically processed edges.

Rice. I. 9. Acheulean hand axes

A typical Acheulean ax does not exhaust all the technological diversity characteristic of that period. There was a flake "klekton" culture, as well as a flake progressive culture "Levallois", which is distinguished by the manufacture of tools from flakes of disc-shaped blanks, the surface of the blanks was preliminarily processed with small chips. In addition to axes, small tools such as points, scrapers, and knives are found in the Acheulean sites. Some of them survive to the time of the Cro-Magnons. There are also Olduvai tools in the Acheulean. Rare wooden tools are known. It is believed that the Pithecanthropus of Asia could make do with bamboo tools.

Hunting was of great importance in the life of the Acheuleans. Pithecanthropes were not only collectors. The Acheulean monuments are interpreted as hunting camps, since bones of large animals are found in their cultural layer. The life of the Acheulean collectives was difficult, people were engaged in different types of labor. Different types of camps are open: hunting camps, flint quarry workshops, long-term camps. The Acheuleans built dwellings in open places and in caves. In the area of Nice, a settlement of huts was opened.

The natural environment of the Acheulean man determined the features of material culture. The types of tools in different sites are found in different proportions. Hunting for large animals required the close rallying of a team of people. parking different types indicate the existence of a division of labor. The remains of hearths speak of the effectiveness of the use of fire by Pithecanthropes. In the Kenyan site of Chesovanja, traces of fire are 1.4 million years old. The Mousterian culture of Neanderthal man is the development of the technological achievements of the angelic culture of Pithecanthropes.

As a result of the Afro-Asiatic magrations of the first people, two main centers of human evolution arose - western and eastern. Pithecanthropus populations separated by vast distances could progress for a long time in isolation from each other. There is an opinion that Neanderthals were not a natural stage of evolution in all regions, in Africa and Europe Pithecanthropes (“preneanderthals”) were such.

Pithecanthropus (Pithecanthropus)- a genus sometimes distinguished to designate archanthropes. Described in 1894 (finding of Pithecanthropus by E. Dubois). Probably includes several species, 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 archanthropes is approximately from 1700 to 500 or even 130 thousand years. Distributed throughout the Old World - in Africa (Bodo, Danakil, Bowry, Olduvai 9, Ndutu, Ternifin, etc.), Europe (Ceprano, Petralona, Mauer, Vertesselles, etc.), Asia (Trinil, Sangiran, Zhoukoudian, Lantian, Nanjing and others).

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

One of the earliest representatives of this taxonomic group is the so-called. "Man working" (Homo ergaster or Pithecanthropus ergaster). These are the oldest archanthropes.

The species was described in 1975 from the lower jaw KNM-ER 992 from Koobi-Fora in Ethiopia. Occurred in Africa about 1.8 or 1.7 million years ago from the "Early Homo", from which they differ in large brain (770-900 cm3) and large body size (up to 1.8 m tall). About 1.4 million years ago they evolved into "Human erect" (see Fig. 1).

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

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

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

History of the Pithecanthropus

There is an opinion (among Darwinists) that some Australopithecus evolved into Pithecanthropes. It was previously believed that these creatures appeared 900.000 - 1.000.000 years ago. Recent potassium-argon analysis bone remains increased this date to 1.9 million years. True, not all anthropologists believe in such an ancient age of Pithecanthropes. They refer to the imperfection of the research method. But the number of 1.6 million is considered indisputable. This is exactly the age of an almost complete Pithecanthropus skeleton found in 1984.

Let us take this date as the beginning of the Pithecanthropus era. Australopithecus coexisted with them for some time - until about 800,000 BC, then disappeared. Perhaps the Pithecanthropus exterminated their less fortunate competitors. Perhaps Australopithecus disappeared for other reasons. But it is unlikely that they died out because of envy of more perfect beings than themselves. And the Pithecanthropes, in relation to the mind, were indeed more perfect than the Australopithecus. They have a much larger brain - 900 cu. see (2/3 of the volume human brain). Other organs, such as the hands, are also more human-like. And in terms of dimensions - height 160 cm, weight 80 kg - Pithecanthropes did not differ at all from people. For this reason, Pithecanthropes are often called archanthropes ("the most ancient people"). Biologists also use the designation Homo erectus - "upright man."

This creature was more skilled than Homo habilis. In addition to choppers, pithecanthropes made ovoid pointed axes, which are easy to cut and chop. The flakes formed during the creation of axes were also used. Cleavers were made from them for scraping skins from the remnants of fat and meat. Trihedrons also appeared - perhaps it was a piercing tool. Unlike Homo habilis, who made tools only from quartzite, the Pithecanthropes mastered the processing of harder flint. It is more difficult to make tools from flint, but they last much longer. That. among Pithecanthropes we see the first ever struggle for the quality of products. Flint is much rarer than quartzite, so it was one of the most valuable materials throughout the Stone Age.

By the way, about the Stone Age. To designate the most ancient eras, historians and archaeologists often use names that characterize the level of technology. So the time of the domination of Pithecanthropes is usually called the early Paleolithic (i.e. "early stone age"). Often the name of the epoch gives the place of the first find of tools of a certain type. For this reason, the time of Homo habilis is called the Olduvai epoch, and the time of Pithecanthropes is called the Acheulian epoch.

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

With the help of hunting for large animals, pithecanthropes were able not only to improve 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 safe apartments than Australopithecus nests or burrows. Safe housing has also contributed to population growth.

When the number of cave dwellers reached a certain level, the danger increased. internal conflicts. Fortunately, there were still uninhabited expanses around, where those who disagreed with the political course of the herd could retire. And technological capabilities higher than those of Australopithecus allowed the settlers to survive in a new place. So pithecanthropes were the first to begin to settle on the earth's surface. On the previous page, we mentioned that Australopithecus lived only in the eastern part of Africa. Pithecanthropes also mastered the rest of the region of this 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 Pithecanthropes suddenly took off and rushed to distant lands. In the life of one generation, in search of the best hunting grounds, they did not go very far. But over hundreds of thousands of years, they crossed huge 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. Pithecanthropes settled in the new lands not anywhere. No, they preferred tropical and subtropical zones, river and lake banks, sea coasts and mixed savannahs. They did not like deserts and highlands, at least their remains were not found there. Paradoxically, but true - pithecanthropes avoided the rainforests, where their ancestors came from.

Driven hunting demanded a better mutual understanding from the Pithecanthropes. It is believed that the result of this was the appearance in them of the rudiments of speech, 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 Ogre.

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

Pithecanthropes were also afraid of fire. But they had the most advanced mind at that time. And one of the most important properties of the mind is insatiable curiosity. Curiosity is sometimes stronger than fear. Among the Pithecanthropes 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 could notice that the fire sets fire to some objects and does not touch others. It might have occurred to some of these explorers to set fire to branches or pieces of wood themselves and lay them out 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, pithecanthropes learned to support it, giving the fire new "food" - firewood, branches and dry grass. According to current ideas, the use of fire began 700,000 - 600,000 years ago. It happened somewhere in Europe or Asia. Around 500,000 - 300,000 BC the use of fire on these continents has become commonplace. But the fire came to Africa much later.

At the very end of the early Paleolithic, when life without fire began to seem impossible, pithecanthropes learned to light a fire themselves - by rubbing two pieces of wood against each other, carving sparks from a stone onto tinder, or rotating a stick in a piece of wood. The use of fire was the second technological leap in the history of mankind, after the manufacture of tools.

The discovery of the beneficial properties of fire came in handy - after 35 million years of a warm climate on Earth, it was time for ice ages. The first ice age - Gunz, was from about 1,000,000 to 900,000 BC, the second - Mindel, from 600,000 to 500,000 BC. Gyuntska period was not too severe. Ice covered only the northern regions. It was warm in southern Europe and much of Asia. But Mindelsky turned out to be more severe. Without external heating, the life of pithecanthropes in many places would become very problematic. With fire, they were not only able to stay on the conquered lines, but also to move 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, for the first time our heroes also had clothes.

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

Pithecanthropus or monkey man ("Javanese man") is a fossil subspecies of man, at one time considered as an intermediate link in evolution between Australopithecus and Neanderthal.

Some half a century ago, the problem of classifying fossil hominids seemed to be no difficulty, and the simplest scheme that illustrates the origin of modern man was in any school textbook: ape - man-ape - man. True, none of the drafters of the schemes knew what this very “man-ape” was - the notorious “missing link in the evolutionary chain.” At various times, different researchers assigned this role to Australopithecus, “handy man”, etc., but all these candidates were quickly discarded by life itself. And soon academia almost unanimously rejected this scheme itself, primitive, like.

Perhaps, only one old delusion could hold out for the longest time, according to which the first “real” representative of the human race was the well-known Pithecanthropus, he is an upright man! (Homo erectus).

Where did the "missing link" come from?

The discovery of Pithecanthropus is associated with the name of the Dutch physician and anatomist Professor Eugene Dubois (1858–1940). Like many of his contemporaries, Dubois was strongly influenced by Darwinism, the fierce propagandist of which at that time was the naturalist and philosopher Ernst Haeckel. Based purely on speculative reasoning, Haeckel drew an "evolutionary tree" of man, on which he placed some fantastic creature, which he called "non-speaking ape-man." This figment of the imagination was intended to represent the missing link in the evolutionary chain between animals and man.

Haeckel's scheme, in fact, was no different from the geographical maps of the Middle Ages, on which the scholastics, who had never been anywhere and had not seen anything, confidently placed the "Islands of the Blessed", the "Country of One-legged", Gog and Magog, dog-headed people, 4-eyed Ethiopians and other rubbish. But since there were no other maps, travelers and navigators had no choice but to use these, as a result of which some died, while others accidentally, being sure that India was in front of them. Precisely the same role was played in the history of paleoanthropology by the wretched schemes of the Darwinists.

Discovery history

Inspired by the "missing link" problem, Dubois decided to find it no matter what. But where to look for it? The evolution of man from apes took place, most likely, in the tropics, Dubois reasoned, because it is there that great apes still live today!

Armed with this, frankly speaking, undisputed idea, Dubois in 1884 began searching for the Sunda Islands (Indonesia). 7 years of fruitless work were finally crowned with success: in 1891, near the village of Trinil (Java), Dubois found the right upper molar and part of the brain box of a creature that he first mistook for an anthropoid ape. A year later, the left tibia fell into the hands of Dubois. Being an experienced anatomist, he realized at a glance that in front of him were the remains of a fossil man - namely a man, not a monkey!

And then the thought came to his mind: what if we correlate this find with the previous one? After a careful study of the remains, there was no longer any doubt: they belong to a creature of the same species, and this species could not be anything other than very archaic and primitive, but still human! Yes, the cranial lid is still very sloping, the supraorbital ridge is highly developed, but the tooth is undoubtedly human, and the tibia clearly indicates the straightened bipedal gait of its owner.

Dubois decided that the long-awaited "missing link in evolution" had been found. There were no problems with determining the age of the find: the geological layer in which the remains he discovered was formed in the Middle Pleistocene and, in terms of occurrence, approximately corresponded to the second ice age in the Northern Hemisphere - that is, the creature found by Dubois lived on Earth about 700 thousand years ago.

Unappreciated discovery

1894 - Dubois published a detailed account of his find, calling his ape-man "Pithecanthropus erectus". Since that time, Pithecanthropus, sometimes called "Javanese Man", has become a true classic of paleoanthropology. But his discoverer had to take a sip of grief with him. Just as it happened later with Dart, Dubois's discovery was subjected to fierce attacks from scientific opponents.

At first, the researcher tried to defend his point of view alone, but then, harassed from all sides, he fell into despair, stopped publishing and hid his find in a safe, not allowing even experts to see it. And when, a few years later, the whole world recognized his correctness, Dubois issued a statement in which he recanted his original views, declaring them "unfounded." The unfortunate "father of Pithecanthropus" died during the Second World War, never realizing that he had done one of the most important discoveries in the history of human evolution.

New finds

New remains of Pithecanthropus were found only more than 40 years after the discovery of Dubois. The well-known paleoanthropologist, a Dutchman of German origin Gustav von Koenigswald, in 1937 discovered a juvenile, that is, a child's skull, near the village of Mojokerto (East Java), which he unmistakably attributed to the human race. The age of the find was about 1 million years.

Description of Pithecanthropus

Then new discoveries followed. A thorough and prolonged study of them dispelled the last doubts: Pithecanthropus is undoubtedly one of the earliest representatives of the genus Homo. Pithecanthropus was 165–175 cm tall and did not differ in any way from a modern person in terms of the way of movement. True, he was clearly not burdened with intelligence: the cranium, even compared to Australopithecus, looks somewhat heavy, although it is quite large (brain volume is about 880–900 cm3); the forehead is low, sloping, the supraorbital ridge protrudes forward and hangs heavily over the orbits. The jaws are massive (while the lower jaw is longer than that of a modern person), the chin is steeply cut. But the entire jaw apparatus looks absolutely “human”.

On the whole, by most indications, Pithecanthropus actually stands halfway between Australopithecus and modern man. And it could be considered the "missing link". But…

Finds at Zhoukoudian Cave

The new findings have caused the scientific world to strongly doubt that Pithecanthropus is the direct ancestor of modern man, although the future of this theory seemed cloudless at first. But in 1918-1927. Swedish scientists J. Anderson and B. Bolin found in China, in a limestone cave near the village of Zhoukoudian (about 40 km southeast of Beijing), the teeth of a fossil anthropoid. One of these teeth fell on the table of the professor of the Beijing Medical Institute, the Englishman Davidson Black, and seemed very familiar to him. Digging through his memory, Professor Black remembered that he had seen something similar among the "dragon teeth" sold in pharmacies that sold drugs of Chinese traditional medicine. The sellers of "dragon teeth" also named Zhoukoudian Cave as their place of origin.

Human ancestor, Pithecanthropus or Sinanthropus?

After carefully examining the finds, Black determined that they belonged to a primitive man, standing quite close to the Javanese Pithecanthropus. The scientist dubbed him Sinanthropus, or "Peking Man."

New excavations undertaken in the cave by Zhoukoudian Black, and later by other researchers, made it possible to discover the remains of more than forty specimens of Sinanthropus - old and young, male and female. Their age was about 400-500 thousand years. But this entire unique collection disappeared without a trace in 1937. It was said that the ship on which the finds were brought from China to the United States came under fire from Japanese warships and sank. According to another version, the remains of fossil creatures on the mainland were destroyed by Japanese soldiers. After the war, scientists tried to find traces of the disappeared collection, but, alas, to no avail.

Meanwhile, the Zhoukoudian cave, right up to the very last days, does not cease to regularly “supply” more and more remains of synanthropes - teeth, bones, fragments of skulls, etc. A lot of primitive stone tools were also found there - flakes, axes, scrapers, etc. However, the most important discovery was a huge bonfire: it turned out that Sinanthropus already knew how to use fire!

However, he, most likely, did not know how to mine it: a colossal accumulation of ash and coal six meters thick led the researchers to the idea that the inhabitants of the cave, most likely, brought a flaming branch from a forest fire that happened in the neighborhood, and then for many years supported him. It is even difficult to say how many generations of synanthropes could have been replaced by this "eternal fire".

Without a doubt, such a lifestyle required some communication skills from the primitive herd. There is still no need to talk about articulate speech, but Sinanthropus, in any case, knew how to think and convey certain information to fellow tribesmen and, therefore, was already in many respects a man. However, this could not prevent him from devouring his own kind with appetite: many of the skulls found in the Zhoukoudian cave were broken by heavy objects. Researchers believe that Sinanthropes were cannibals and hunted each other.

With the help of the most modern methods scientists have studied Sinanthropus, as they say, up and down. The body structure of the "Peking Man" was not much different from Pithecanthropus. He kept straight, but was much smaller - a little over 150 cm. But the volume of the brain noticeably exceeded that of Pithecanthropus - 1050-1100 cm3! Undoubtedly, on the evolutionary ladder, the “Peking Man” is higher than the “Javanese Man”, and yet they were contemporaries! And from whom then did modern man originate - from Pithecanthropus or from Sinanthropus?

New varieties of the genus Pithecanthropus discovered

The picture became even more complicated when, in 1963, in Lantian (Shanxi Province), Chinese archaeologists found a well-preserved lower jaw of a primitive man, and a year later, in the same area, near Kunwanlin, parts of the facial skeleton, a tooth and a cranial vault of the same species were found. . These finds turned out to be even ancient Zhoukoudian - their age is approximately 1 million years. And here, as it turned out, we are talking about the same Pithecanthropus - but already about its third species! But, compared with his relatives, the "man from Lantian" was, as they say, quite a fool: his brain volume barely reached 780 cm3.

Remains ancient people Homo erectus species have also been found in Africa and Europe. The oldest European find comes from a sand pit near the village of Mauer near Heidelberg (Germany). 1907, October 20 - the lower jaw, known among experts as the jaw of the "Heidelberg man", was opened here. This name was given to the find in 1908 by Professor O. Shetenzak. "Heidelberg man" was also called "paleoanthrope", or "protanthrope". Today, the generally accepted point of view is that the "Heidelberg man" is another representative of the Pithecanthropus genus. Its absolute age is estimated at 900 thousand years.

Another European find (teeth and occipital bone) was made in 1965 near the village of Vertesselles (Hungary). This fossil man, in terms of development level, approaches the Beijing Sinanthropus, and its age is 600-500 thousand years. Other finds of the remains of the species Homo erectus were made in the Czech Republic, Greece, Algeria, Morocco, the Republic of Chad and in the famous Olduvai Gorge, which is called the "golden mines of paleoanthropology."

Pithecanthropus is not an ancestor of modern man

The accumulated material made it possible for scientists to draw amazing conclusions: firstly, Pithecanthropes are much older than previously thought: the antiquity of the most archaic of them reaches 2 million years - that is, the first Pithecanthropes were contemporaries of Australopithecus. Secondly, species differences among different groups pithecanthropes are so large that it is time to talk not about the species, but about the independent genus Homo erectus, which includes several different types! And, finally, thirdly, Pithecanthropus, aka Homo erectus, alas, is not the ancestor of modern man - these are two separate branches of evolution ...

Simply put, “a thorough and objective assessment of the extent of differences between individual groups makes it necessary to preserve the generic status of Pithecanthropes, on the one hand, Neanderthals and modern humans, on the other, while distinguishing ‹several species within the Pithecanthropus genus, as well as distinguishing Neanderthals and modern humans as independent species. ".

The Pithecanthropus story has raised new and so far unresolved questions for the scientific community related to ... At least, only one thing is clear: the evolution of the human race followed immeasurably more complex paths than it seemed to many hotheads just a few decades ago.

. Man at that time still practically did not stand out from the animal world. The economic life of the forefathers and their social relations did not differ from those of other social animals. start date anthropogenesis

Pithecanthropus. During this period, the most ancient forefathers successively succeeded each other. Pithecanthropus was the first in this chain. He was an upright creature and differed from modern man in the structure of the cranium, the brain volume was 900 cm3, the skull retained many monkey features: low height, primitive structure, and a highly developed brow ridge. The hands of Pithecanthropus were capable of performing the simplest labor operations. Pithecanthropus already knew how to make some tools. To do this, he used wood, bone, boulders and pebbles, subjecting them to primitive processing: the chips on the stones do not yet show any regularity. The era of primitiveness is usually called the Stone Age, and its initial stage is the early Paleolithic (Ancient Stone Age). The ancient Paleolithic ended approximately 100 thousand years BC. Pithecanthropus habitats are associated with the ancestral home of mankind. Most likely it is Central and South Africa, Central Asia. Separate species of Pithecanthropus lived in relative isolation, did not meet with each other and were separated by genetic barriers. Their everyday life was similar to the life of Australopithecus monkeys - a predatory lifestyle, hunting for small animals, gathering, fishing, nomadism. They lived in groups of 25-30 adults in caves, grottoes, rocks, shelters made of trees and bushes. They didn't know how to make fire.

Synanthropes. Appeared on Earth300 thousand years ago. Like the Pithecanthropus, the Sinanthropus was of medium height, dense build, and its brain volume was 1050 cm3. Sinanthropus was capable of sound speech. More complex labor activity and stone tools. The most common were hand axes and flakes with obvious traces of artificial processing. They hunted such large animals as deer, wild horses and rhinos. They lived in caves, learned to build ground dwellings. They led a nomadic lifestyle, preferring the banks of rivers and lakes as habitats. They did not know how to make fire, but they had already learned how to maintain natural fire. They had hearths where fire burned day and night. The extraction of fire became the most important economic task, and the struggle for fire became common cause conflicts and wars between neighboring human groups.

Neanderthals. The Neanderthal type of man was formed about 200 thousand years ago. Neanderthals were small in stature (the average height of a man was 156 cm), broad-boned, with highly developed muscles. The brain volume of some Neanderthal forms was larger than that of modern humans. The structure of the brain remained primitive: poorly developed frontal lobes, important for the function of thinking and inhibition. Have limited ability logical thinking. The behavior was characterized by a sharp excitability, which led to violent conflicts and clashes.

Stone tools were made: axes, points, punctures, drills, flakes. The main methods of stone technology: squeezing, breaking stone, for which flint, sandstone, quartz, volcanic rocks were used. Stone technology is gradually improving, stone tools acquire the correct shape. Previously unknown tools appeared: side-scrapers, awls. Part of the tool could be made of stone, part of wood or bone.

Successfully located sheds and caves were used as permanent dwellings, they could be used throughout the life of several generations. Complex ground dwellings were built in open places. Economic life was based on gathering, fishing, hunting.

Gathering required a lot of time, and food provided little and mostly low-calorie. Fishing required exceptional care, fast response and dexterity, but did not give much prey. Hunting was the most efficient source of meat food. Hunting objects: hippos, elephants, antelopes, wild bulls (in the tropical zone), wild boars, deer, bison, bears (in the northern regions). They also hunted mammoth and woolly rhinoceros. They made trapping pits and used the driven method, in which all adult males of the community participated. Hunting was a form of labor activity that ensured the organization of the collective, the most progressive branch of the economy, it was it that determined the development of primitive communal society. Any prey belonged to the whole team. The distribution of prey was equal. If there was little food, then hunters received it first of all. In extreme conditions, the killing of children and the elderly was practiced. Endless bloody conflicts, as well as difficult living conditions, did not allow Neanderthals to live to old age. Gradually their numbers increased and they settled throughout Europe, Asia and Africa.

stick

Pithecanthropus tool

Alternative descriptions

No eyes, no ears, but leads the blind (riddle)

Cut thin trunk or branch of a tree without knots

Ski support

A piece of wood that can be bent

Skier's helper

Striped girlfriend of a traffic cop

She has two ends

. ...-lifesaver

stake and staff

Bat, stake or stick

. ...-digger

about two ends

Cane, staff

. skier's "staff"

Ski …

She is taken to extremes

Oryasina

She is put into the wheels of the enemy

The owner of two ends at once

Eternally bent

piece of wood

Polish biathlete

A piece of wood

Straight tree branch without knots

A thick branch of a tree without knots, used as a support when walking

Cut thin trunk or cut straight tree branch without knots

. "Staff" skier

. "baton" in French

. “if the dog is a bat, there will be ...” (last)

a perch, stake or club, convenient in size, for wielding it with one hand; batog, baidig, batozhek, padozhek, cane, staff, staff, hard, cut twig.

A stick serving as a handle, or in business, called. looking at things: a scythe, a kopeck, a shaft, a stalk, a banner, a nag, a lever, a gag, a twist, etc. He walks, propped up with a stick. and app. wand. Drum sticks. There is no razor, so the awl shaves; there is no fur coat, so the stick warms.

soldier We work from under the stick, reluctantly. The stick does not rule, but breaks. her stick, and she gave me a rolling pin! A fool always grabs a stick. There is no learning without a stick. To whom the first cup, that and the first stick, rank. Your will, our stick: beat us, but listen to you. Stick on stick, not good, but glass on glass, nothing. When a soldier is not afraid of a stick, he is not fit for service or business. our regiment is of no use: whoever got up earlier and took the stick was the corporal. He rode off on a stick.

There is a dog, so there is no stick; stick eat dog no! Whoever needs to hit the dog will find the stick.

Pithecanthropus and Sinanthropus

He gives a stick to himself. There is nowhere to cut a drumstick: there is nothing to carve a guy with (treelessness). If there was a dog, we would find a stick (and vice versa). Happiness is not a stick: you can’t take it in your hands. No eyes, no ears, but leads the blind? (stick). The red stick strikes in vain; the white stick strikes for the cause. Do not stir if the sticks (fingers) are not good. Stick, Vologda. pralnik, kichiga, laundry roll. A stick of sealing wax. Lollipop stick. Stick (tile) chocolate. Stick pl. a short blow with sticks on the drum, like a sign, a lighthouse, for a friendly volley from cannons, on a ship; also a sign to the infantry officers, to enter from behind the front to their places, after the firing stops.

Mn. card game. Wand cf. sticks for punishment, beating; rods, batozhe, old. lengths. Palchina vlad. club. collected sib. stick, pole. Stick insect m. batozhnik, bushy or young wood, suitable for sticks. Rusten. Typha; Angustifolia: tyrlych vyat. chakan donsk.

robin? cattail or cattail; tub? philatics? latifolia: kubys south. cattail and cattail, kuga, ears, chakan, tyrlik, wad, siskin, tub. Downy, but very hard cobs of stick insects, in asters. dipped in lard or blubber, and burned vm. candles; from its trunks they weave bedding, braid chairs, knit floats for a seine. Timothy grass, rye, Phleum. Rusten. Dactilis glomerata? hedgehog, south, miser? Stick fragments. That's what life is like beating with a stick! The cane guard, in the camp, and now the back, where the prisoners are, and where the guilty are punished.

Mace a cane, a club, a stick, a bulldyuga, especially a weighty one; novg. hard. kichiga, pralnik or pralo, pralny roll, hoof; but the handle of the hoof is longer, for winter. (Acad. Sl. erroneously available). Oslop, a club for defense, as a weapon, with a heavy rhizome, butt or with a bound knob, a combat mace.

Elm, two-handed club. old potes baroque, instead of the helm and oars. Expects that the drunkard will drink a jar, that the dog will bludgeon, dumbfounded. Clubbing. Mace army, palichniks, bludgeons, oslopniki

What word Dunno came up with the rhyme "herring"

Dunno rhyme to the word "herring"

The one that is always "two-way"

. "..., ..., cucumber" (children's drawing)

Report: Pithecanthropus.

IN late XIX V. (1890-1891) a sensation was caused by the finds of fossil remains of a humanoid creature in the early Pleistocene deposits of the river. Solo in Java. A skull cap and long bones of the lower extremities were found there, on the basis of the study of which it was concluded that the creature moved in an upright position, which is why it received the name Pithecanhropus erectus, or “upright ape-man.”

Immediately after the discovery of the remains of Pithecanthropus, a lively controversy arose around him. Views were expressed that the cranium belonged to a huge gibbon, a modern microcephalus, just a modern man, and acquired its characteristic features under the influence of post-mortem deformation, etc.

etc. But all these assumptions have not been confirmed by a thorough comparative morphological study. On the contrary, it irrefutably proved that the peculiarity of the find cannot be explained by pathology. In addition, starting from the 30s of the 20th century, the remains of almost 20 more similar individuals were found on the island of Java. Thus, there is no doubt about the real existence of Pithecanthropes.

Another remarkable discovery of human remains from the Early Pleistocene era was made in 1954-1955.

V North Africa. Unfortunately, it is even more fragmentary than the finds on the island of Java. Only incompletely preserved mandibles were found, belonging to three individuals, who received the name Atlanthropus mauritanicus. However, they were deposited in an unredeposited state and together with tools, which significantly increases the value of the find.

The most important discoveries for understanding the evolution of the morphological type of the most ancient hominins were made starting from 1927 in northern China, not far from Beijing, in the Zhoukoudian cave.

Excavations of the camp of the most ancient hunters discovered there have brought huge archaeological material and bone remains of more than 40 individuals - men, women and children. Both in the development of culture and in their morphological appearance, these people turned out to be somewhat more advanced on the path of approaching modern man than the Pithecanthropes.

They belong to a later era than the Pithecanthropes, and were separated into an independent genus and species Sinanthropus pekinensis - Peking ape-man. The preservation of the bone material made it possible to almost completely study the structure of the Sinanthropus skeleton and thereby fill in the gaps in our knowledge due to the fragmentary nature of the finds of Pithecanthropus and other ancient hominins.

Sinanthropus, like Pithecanthropus, was a creature of medium height and dense build.

The volume of the brain exceeded that of the Pithecanthropus and varied in different individuals from 900 to 1200 cm3, averaging 1050 cm3. Nevertheless, many primitive features were still observed in the structure of the skull, bringing Sinanthropus closer to anthropoid apes.

An indirect argument in defense of this conclusion can be the relatively high level of labor activity of synanthropes.

The tools are diverse, although they do not have a completely stable shape. There are few implements worked on both sides, the so-called hand axes, and they also do not differ in typological uniformity. Sinanthropus has already killed such large animals as deer, gazelles, wild horses and even rhinos.

He had permanent habitats in caves.

Probably two more European finds have a very ancient dating. One of them was made in 1965 at the Vertesselles site in Hungary. This is the occipital bone of an adult individual. Some researchers assess the morphological features of the bone as very primitive and suggest that it was left by Pithecanthropus.

Given the insignificance of the preserved fragment, it is difficult to resolve the issue definitely, but the volume of the brain restored from the occipital bone exceeds 1400 cm3, which is closer to Neanderthal values. Perhaps the bone belonged to a very ancient Neanderthal or some transitional European form from Pithecanthropus and Sinanthropus to Neanderthals. True, it is also possible that the volume of the brain determined from such small fragments may be erroneous.

The second find was made in 1972-1975.

at the Bilzingsleben site in Thuringia. The tools and fauna found with her also testify to her early age. Fragments of the frontal and occipital bones were found. The supraorbital relief is characterized by exceptional thickness, and therefore we can think that we are dealing in this case with a very early type of hominid, possibly with the European Pithecanthropus.

Finally, the remains of creatures morphologically similar to pithecanthropes have been found in ancient Early Pleistocene and Middle Pleistocene layers in many locations in Africa.

In terms of their structure, they are quite peculiar, but in terms of the level of development and brain size they do not differ from the Javanese ape-men.

Ape-like people - Pithecanthropus, Sinanthropus, Atlanthropus, Heidelberg man and others - lived in warm climatic conditions surrounded by heat-loving animals and did not settle far beyond the area of their original appearance; judging by the fossil finds, most of Africa, southern Europe and southern Asia were inhabited.

The existence of the genus Pithecanthropus covered a huge period of time and belonged to both the lower and the middle Pleistocene.

Thus, at present, the point of view of those researchers who, on the basis of morphology, attribute Australopithecus to the family of hominids (assuming, of course, that we are talking about representatives of all three genera - Australopithecus, Paranthropus and Plesianthropus), distinguishing them as a subfamily of Australopithecus.

The remaining later and progressive forms are combined into the second constituent family of hominids - the subfamily of hominins, or humans proper.

The overwhelming majority of serious modern researchers consider all forms of the most ancient people known to us without exception as representatives of a single genus.

The cursory list of paleontological finds of anthropomorphic primates of the Late Tertiary and Early Quaternary periods, as well as Australopithecus, made above, clearly illustrates the complexity of the problem of the ancestral home of mankind.

The remains of fossil primates, which can be close to hominids, have been found on various continents of the Old World. All of them are approximately synchronous with each other within the limits of geological time, and therefore paleontological data do not make it possible to make a choice of the territory in which the separation of man from the animal world took place.

Geological, paleozoological, paleobotanical, and paleoclimatological data paint a picture of a fairly favorable habitat for higher primates in wide areas of Central and Southern Africa and Central Asia.

The choice between the Eurasian and African continents is further hampered by the lack of developed prerequisites for determining the region of the ancestral home of mankind.

Some scientists believe that the separation of man from the animal world occurred in the conditions of a rocky landscape of some foothills, others - that the immediate ancestors of the hominid family were inhabitants of the steppes.

Excluding hypotheses that are untenable from a factual point of view, about the origin of mankind in Australia and America, which were not at all included in the zone of settlement of higher primates, being cut off from the Old World by impassable water barriers for them, we currently do not have the opportunity to solve the problem of the ancestral home of mankind with due certainty. .

C. Darwin, based on the greater morphological similarity of man with African anthropoids compared to Asian ones, considered it more likely that the African continent was the ancestral home of mankind. The fossil finds of higher primates in India, made at the beginning of our century, have shaken the balance and tipped it in favor of the Asian continent.

However, the discovery of fossil remains of Australopithecus monkeys, Zinjanthropus, Prezinjanthropus and other forms again draws the researchers' attention to the African continent as the cradle of mankind.

Summary: Ancient people

Report on the topic "Ancient people"

NEANDERTHALS- Fossil ancient people (paleoanthropes) who created the archaeological cultures of the early Paleolithic. Skeletal remains of Neanderthals have been discovered in Europe, Asia and Africa. The time of existence is 200-28 thousand years ago. As studies of the genetic material of Neanderthals have established, they, apparently, are not the direct ancestors of modern humans.

They are considered as an independent species of “Neanderthal man” (Homo neanderthalensis), but more often as a subspecies of Homo sapiens neanderthalensis. The name is given by an early discovery (1856) of a fossil man in the Neandertal valley, near Düsseldorf (Germany). The bulk of the remains of Neanderthals and their predecessors "pre-Neanderthals" (about 200 individuals) were found in Europe, mainly in France, and belong to the period 70-35 thousand years ago.

years ago.

Physical type of Neanderthals

Neanderthals inhabited mainly the pre-glacial zone of Europe and were a kind of ecological type of ancient man, formed in a harsh climate and in some ways reminiscent of modern Arctic types, for example, the Eskimos. They were characterized by a dense muscular build with a small stature (160-163 cm in men), a massive skeleton, a voluminous chest, an extremely high ratio of body mass to its surface, which reduced the relative heat transfer surface.

These signs could be the result of selection acting in the direction of an energetically more favorable heat exchange and an increase in physical strength. Neanderthals had a large, although still primitive brain (1400-1600 cm3 and above), a long massive skull with a developed supraocular ridge, a sloping forehead and an elongated "chignon-like" nape; very peculiar "Neanderthal face" with sloping cheekbones, a strongly protruding nose and a cut chin.

It is assumed that Neanderthals were born more mature and developed faster than fossil humans of a modern physical type. It is possible that Neanderthals were quite hot-tempered and aggressive, judging by some of the features of their brain and hormonal status, which can be reconstructed from the skeleton. There are also signs of constant pressure of stress factors, such as thinning of tooth enamel, which apparently indicates poor nutrition, and a number of other pathological signs on the skeleton, some of which can be explained by life in dark, damp caves.

An unfavorable manifestation of the advanced "strength" specialization of Neanderthals is evidenced by excessive thickening of the walls of the bones of long limbs, which should lead to a weakening of the hematopoietic function of the bone marrow and, as a result, to anemia.

Unilateral strength development could occur at the expense of endurance. The Neanderthal's hand, broad, paw-shaped, with shortened fingers, compacted joints and monstrous nails, was probably less dexterous than that of modern man.

Neanderthal man had a high infant mortality rate, a shortened reproductive period, and a short lifespan.

Neanderthal culture

Intellectually, the Neanderthals advanced quite far, creating a highly developed Mousterian culture (named after the Le Moustier cave in France).

Over 60 different types of stone tools have been found in France alone; their processing was significantly improved: for the manufacture of one Mousterian pointed point, 111 blows were required against 65 when making a hand ax of the early Paleolithic. Neanderthals hunted large animals (reindeer, mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, cave bear, horse, bison, etc.),

Neanderthals: our ancestors or a side branch?

Neanderthals most likely represented an extinct side branch of the hominid family tree; they often coexisted with modern man in Asia Minor and some parts of Europe and could mix with him.

Pithecanthropus Sinanthropus Neanderthals

But there is another view of Neanderthals, they are considered possible ancestors of modern man in certain regions, for example, in Central Europe, or even a universal link in the evolution from Homo erectus (Homo erectus) to modern Homo sapiens. However, work in the 1990s comparing mitochondrial DNA isolated from bones found in Neanderthal with the corresponding genetic material of modern humans suggests that Neanderthals are not our ancestors.

Around 35,000 years ago, Neanderthals suddenly died out. (later sites of Neanderthals have now become known, showing that some of their groups "held out" in the territory occupied by the Cro-Magnons for quite a long time - up to 28,000 years ago). Shortly before this, modern man (Homo sapiens sapiens) appeared in Europe.

Perhaps there is a connection between the two events. Here are some of the most ancient finds of modern man (Cro-Magnon, France):

Neanderthal from the Caucasus. Mysteries clear up

The prestigious scientific journal Nature published an article by Russian, British and Swedish scientists on the analysis of Neanderthal DNA. Perhaps the most dramatic page in the history of the origin of modern man is the problem of Neanderthals. Disputes about their fate and their contribution to our blood have not stopped for many decades.

“To put it simply, we see the mind of modern man, enclosed in the body of an ancient creature ... The Neanderthals had beliefs, customs and rituals. Burial of the dead, compassion for one's own kind and attempts to influence fate - these are the new aspects introduced into human life Neanderthals,” wrote Ralph Solecki.

"Under the sloping forehead of a Neanderthal, a truly human thought burned" - the opinion of Yuri Rychkov.

And these creatures disappeared without a trace from the face of the planet? No, many anthropologists place them among our ancestors. The traces of the first Neanderthals date back to 300,000 years old, and they disappeared somewhere around 25,000 years ago. And for at least 30,000 years, Neanderthals and our direct ancestors - the Cro-Magnons - lived side by side, in the same places in Europe.

So why don't they mix? - ask the supporters of our relationship with the Neanderthals. And yet in Lately It is customary to consider Neanderthals a "side" branch of the evolutionary tree of Homo sapiens.

Now, results from analysis of mitochondrial DNA samples from Neanderthal ribs support this view.

A few clarifications regarding the methods of analysis. Mitochondria (the main source of cellular energy) are scattered outside the nucleus, in the cell cytoplasm. They contain small rings of DNA, which contain about twenty genes.

Mitochondrial DNA is amazing in that it is transmitted from generation to generation in a fundamentally different way than chromosomal DNA: only through the female line.

A person receives from his father and from his mother a set of twenty-three specific chromosomes.

But which of them is inherited from the grandmother, and which from the grandfather, is determined by chance. Therefore, the chromosomes of siblings are somewhat different, and they may not be very similar to each other. And most importantly, for this reason, in the course of sexual reproduction between members of the population, a kind of “horizontal” mixing of chromosomes and the emergence of various new genetic combinations occur. These combinations are the material for evolution, for natural selection.

Another thing is mitochondrial DNA. Each person receives mtDNA only from his mother, she - from her own, and so on in a series of only female generations, which has a chance to pass it on.

And now, scientists have analyzed mitochondrial DNA from the bones of the skeleton of a two-month-old baby found by an expedition of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the Mezmaiskaya cave in the Caucasus.

Note that this is the easternmost find of a Neanderthal man, and he lived 29 thousand years ago. From the ribs found, geneticists managed to extract the remains of the child's genetic substance and, as a result, obtained a segment of mtDNA of 256 pairs.

What did the analysis show? First, the "Caucasian" mtDNA differs by 3.48 percent from a segment of 379 pairs from the bones of a native Neanderthal from Germany, from the Neander Valley, whose analysis was made back in 1997. These differences are small and speak of the relationship of the two beings, despite the great distance separating them and the time. It is curious that, according to scientists, German and Caucasian Neanderthals had a common ancestor about 150 thousand years ago.

But the main thing: this segment is very different from the DNA of a modern person. It failed to find traces of genetic material that could be transferred from Neanderthals to modern humans.

How reliable is the analysis of fragments of ancient DNA obtained with great difficulty as a reliable tool for studying the distant past? - my question is to one of the authors of the sensational discovery, Igor Ovchinnikov.

“A fairly large segment of DNA cannot be obtained from ancient remains.

It is possible to obtain a number of different short DNA fragments, or to obtain a large fragment by combining overlapping segments. Nevertheless, there is, of course, an opportunity for comparing ancient and modern material and for phylogenetic analysis.

As a rule, in such work, for comparison, two highly variable regions in the control region of human mitochondrial DNA are used, for which studies have been carried out on various modern populations and the approximate rate of mutations is known.

From here, it becomes possible to build a phylogenetic tree showing the relationship between different populations and the time of their origin from a common ancestor.

However, in my opinion, the final point in the dispute about the degree of kinship between the Neanderthal and humans should not be put. It is possible to compare the mtDNA of a Neanderthal with the mtDNA of not only modern humans, but also our direct ancestor, the Cro-Magnon.

True, such mtDNA has not yet been obtained, but everything is ahead.

Perhaps there were different - genetically different - groups of Neanderthals, and some of them were still among our ancestors.

But all this does not remove the drama of the situation: two parallel branches were moving towards the bright future of civilization. And one of them disappears! The circumstances of this are yet to be explored and studied.

This is how you can imagine the main developments in the field of ancient DNA research.

1984 - Obtaining and determining the nucleotide sequence of DNA from the extinct species of quagga zebra in the laboratory of Allan Wilson in California.

1985 - Cloning and sequencing of an ancient Egyptian mummy.

In subsequent years, small stretches of DNA from the ancient remains were multiplied a thousandfold using the polymerase chain reaction, a method that was developed in 1985.

This method has revolutionized molecular biology both genetics and the authors received the Nobel Prize for it. By obtaining many copies of the source material, the researchers significantly simplified their work.

1988 - the possibility of analyzing mitochondrial DNA from 7,000-year-old human brain samples was shown.

1989 - Two groups in the USA show the possibility of multiplying ancient mitochondrial DNA.

1989 - Analysis of the mitochondrial DNA of a marsupial wolf from Australia, which became extinct in the last century.

1990 - a DNA fragment was obtained from the chloroplasts of ancient magnolia species.

1992 - a DNA fragment was obtained from a fossil termite in amber.

Somewhat later, the main work on the ancient human remains began. The most interesting are:

1995 - study of mitochondrial DNA from the Tyrolean mummy.

1997 - study of mitochondrial DNA from the remains of a Neanderthal found in the vicinity of Düsseldorf in 1856.

Quite a lot of research on last years was associated with the study of mummies from North and South America.

If all previous studies were related to the analysis of mitochondrial DNA, then in recent years there have been works related to the analysis of DNA of chromosomes from ancient human remains.

1993 - the possibility of determining sex in ancient and medieval human remains is shown.

1996 - the possibility of studying microsatellites (short repeats) of DNA from medieval remains was shown. These two approaches are of great interest to anthropologists and archaeologists for the study of the sexual and social structure of human communities of the past.

Homo erectus (Homo erectus)

Homo erectus(lat. Homo erectus) is an extinct species from the genus People (lat. Homo). The first evidence of its existence appears in the early Pleistocene (about 1.8 million years ago), and the last disappear only about 27 thousand years ago. The species originated in Africa and then spread to Europe and Asia.

Discovery and study

The Dutch anatomist Eugène Dubois, fascinated by Darwin's theory of evolution as applied to man, set out in 1886.

to Asia (which, despite the opinion of Darwin, began to be considered the cradle of mankind) to find the ancestors of man. He spent his first few years in Sumatra as an army doctor. However, his search there was fruitless. But in 1891, his team discovered human remains on the island of Java in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Dubois called it " Pithecanthropus"(lat.

Pithecanthropus erectus). The name comes from other Greek. words "pithekos" - monkey and "anthropos" - man, i.e. "monkey man" The remains consisted of several teeth found on the banks of the Solo River (Trinil, East Java), a cranial vault and a femur, similar to the corresponding bones of a modern person. The find became known as the Java Man. These fossils are now classified as Homo erectus.

In 1921, the Swedish geologist and archaeologist Johan Gunnar Andersson and the American paleontologist Walter Granger arrived in Zhoukoudian (near Beijing, China) in search of prehistoric fossils.

Excavations began immediately, led by Andersson's Austrian assistant paleontologist Otto Zdansky, who found something that turned out to be a petrified human tooth. Zdansky returned to the excavation site in 1923, and the materials extracted from the ground on both of his visits were sent to Uppsala University (Sweden) for analysis.

In 1926, Andersson announced the discovery of two human teeth in the materials, and Zdansky published this discovery.

Canadian anatomist Davidson Black of the Beijing United medical college, delighted with the discovery of Andersson and Zdansky, received funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and resumed excavations in 1927, together with Chinese and Western scientists. Swedish paleoanthropologist Anders Birger Bolin discovered another tooth during these excavations, a description of which Black published in the journal Nature.

He characterized the find as belonging to a new species (and genus), which he called Sinanthropus Pekinensis (lat. Sinanthropus pekinensis). generic name " Sinanthropus"comes from other Greek. words denoting "China" and "man", i.e. "Chinese Man".

Many scientists were skeptical about identifying a new species based on a single tooth, and the foundation requested additional samples to continue funding. In 1928, several more teeth, skull fragments and a lower jaw were found.

Black presented these finds to the foundation and was awarded an $80,000 grant with which he founded the Cenozoic Research Laboratory.

Excavations with the participation of specialists from Europe, America and China continued until 1937, when Japan invaded China. By this time, more than 200 different remains belonging to more than 40 individuals have been discovered.

Among them were 15 partially preserved skulls, 11 lower jaws, many teeth and some bones of the skeleton. In addition, many stone tools were also found.

Almost all of the original finds were lost during World War II.

Origin, classification and evolution

There is no single point of view on the classification and origin of this species.

There are two alternative points of view. According to the first, Homo erectus can only be another name for a working person and, thus, is the direct ancestor of later hominids, such as Heidelberg man, Neanderthal man and modern man (lat. Homo sapiens). According to the second, it is an independent species.

Some paleoanthropologists consider H. ergaster to be only an African variety of H. erectus.

This led to the terms "Homo erectus sensu stricto" ("Homo erectus in the strict sense") for the Asiatic H. erectus and "Homo erectus sensu lato" ("Homo erectus in the broad sense") for a group including both early African (H . ergaster) and the Asian population.

The first origin hypothesis is that H. erectus migrated out of Africa about 2 million years ago.

years ago during the early Pleistocene, possibly as a result of the action of the "Sugar pump", and widely distributed in the Old World. Fossilized remains aged 1-1.8 million years have been found in Africa (Lake Turkana and Olduvai Gorge), Spain, Georgia, Indonesia, Vietnam, China and India.

The second hypothesis, on the contrary, states that H. erectus originated in Eurasia, and from there already migrated to Africa. Individuals found in Dmanisi (Georgia) date back to 1.77-1.85 million years ago.

years ago, which corresponds to the appearance of the earliest African remains or slightly older.

It is now generally accepted that Homo erectus is a descendant of earlier genera, such as Ardipithecus and Australopithecus, or earlier species of the genus Humans - a skilled person or a working person.

H. habilis and H. erectus have coexisted for several hundred thousand years and may have descended from a common ancestor.

For much of the 20th century, anthropologists debated the role homo erectus in human evolution. At the beginning of the century, thanks to the finds from Java and Zhoukoudian, it was believed that man appeared in Asia. However, several naturalists (Charles Darwin most famous among them) believed that the earliest ancestors of people were Africans, because.

chimpanzees and gorillas, the closest living primate relatives to humans, live only in Africa. Numerous finds of fossilized remains of extinct primates in the 50s - 70s of the XX century in East Africa gave evidence that the early hominids appeared there.

Homo erectus georgicus

In 1991, the Georgian scientist David Lordkipanidze, as part of an international group of researchers, found fossilized remains in Dmanisi (Georgia) - jaws and skulls.

At first, scientists believed that these remains belonged to H. ergaster, but due to the difference in size, they subsequently concluded that they belonged to a new species. They called him a Georgian man (lat. Homo georgicus). It was assumed to be a descendant of H. habilis and an ancestor of the Asiatic H. erectus. However, this classification has not been accepted, and is now considered to be a divergent group of H. erectus - sometimes referred to as a subspecies of Homo erectus georgicus (Georgian Homo Erectus).

Possibly this is a stage shortly after the transformation of H. habilis into H. erectus.

In 2001, a partially preserved skeleton was discovered. The remains are about 1.8 million years old.

The oldest people (Chinese Sinanthropus, Javanese Pithecanthropus), or archanthropes

A total of 4 skeletons were found, with a primitive skull and torso, but progressive spine and lower limbs, providing high mobility. H. erectus georgicus exhibits a high degree of sexual dimorphism, with males significantly larger than females.

Skull D2700, dated to 1.77 million years ago, has a volume of about 600 cm3 and is in good condition, allowing comparison of its morphology with that of a modern human skull. At the time of discovery, it was the smallest and most primitive hominin skull found outside of Africa.

However, in 2003, a skull of a hominid (Floresian man) was found on the island of Flores, which had an even smaller brain volume.

The excavations also unearthed 73 stone cutting and chopping tools and 34 bone fragments of unidentified animals.

Morphological features

The brain volume of H. erectus is larger than that of H. habilis and ranges from 850 cm3 in the earliest specimens to 1200 cm3 in the latest ones (however, the skulls from Dmanisi are noticeably smaller).

The skull is very thick with massive supraorbital ridges. Height reached 180 cm, the physique is more massive than that of a modern person. Sexual dimorphism was greater than that of modern man, but much less than that of Australopithecus. On average, males are 25% larger than females.

material culture

Erectus made extensive use of stone tools.

However, they were originally more primitive than the Acheulean Homo ergaster instruments. Products of the Acheulean culture outside of Africa appear only about a million years ago.

There is evidence of the use of fire by a man who walks upright. The earliest of them date back to about 1 million years ago and are located in the Northern Cape of South Africa. There are traces of the use of fire dating back to 690-790 thousand years in northern Israel. In addition, there is such evidence in Terra Amata on the French Riviera, where it is believed that about 300 thousand

H. erectus lived years ago.

Excavations in Israel suggest that H. erectus could not only use and control fire, but also produce it. However, some scholars argue that the use of fire became typical only for later human species.

Undoubtedly, the development of stone-working techniques and the mastery of fire made Homo erectus one of the most successful species of the genus.

Stone weapons made it possible to successfully defend against predators and hunt, fire warmed and illuminated, heat treatment made animal food better digestible and disinfected it.

Society and language

Probably, along with working humans, Homo erectus became one of the first human species to live in hunter-gatherer societies. It is assumed that the erectus were the first hominids to hunt in organized groups, as well as to take care of the sick and infirm members of the group.

An increase in brain size, the presence of Broca's center and anatomy similar to modern humans suggest that Homo erectus began to use verbal communication. Apparently, it was a primitive proto-language that did not have a complex developed structure. modern languages, but much more advanced than the wordless "language" of a chimpanzee.

AUTOMIR

Discovery history

material culture

Pithecanthropus and modern humans

Where did the "missing link" come from?

Discovery history

Unappreciated discovery

New finds

Description of Pithecanthropus

Finds at Zhoukoudian Cave

Human ancestor, Pithecanthropus or Sinanthropus?

New varieties of the genus Pithecanthropus discovered

Pithecanthropus is not an ancestor of modern man

stick

Pithecanthropus and Sinanthropus

Report: Pithecanthropus.

Summary: Ancient people

Physical type of Neanderthals

Neanderthal culture

Neanderthals: our ancestors or a side branch?

Pithecanthropus Sinanthropus Neanderthals

Neanderthal from the Caucasus. Mysteries clear up

Homo erectus (Homo erectus)

Discovery and study

Origin, classification and evolution

Homo erectus georgicus

The oldest people (Chinese Sinanthropus, Javanese Pithecanthropus), or archanthropes

Morphological features

material culture

Society and language