Pithecanthropus
Pithecanthropus is a fossil subspecies of humans, once considered as an intermediate link in evolution between Australopithecus and Neanderthals. Currently, Pithecanthropus is considered as a local variant of Homo erectus (along with Heidelberg man in Europe and Sinanthropus in China), characteristic exclusively for South-East Asia and did not give rise to the immediate ancestors of man. It is possible that the direct descendant of the Javanese man is the Floresian man.
Pithecanthropus had a short stature (a little over 1.5 meters), a straight gait and an archaic skull structure (thick walls, a low frontal bone, protruding supraorbital ridges, a sloping chin). In terms of brain volume (900–1200 cm3), he occupied an intermediate position between a skilled man (Homo habilis) and a Neanderthal man, a reasonable man.
The first remains of Pithecanthropus were discovered on the banks of the Solo River in Java by the Dutch physician Eugène Dubois in 1891. During the excavations, he found a petrified tooth, a femur and a skullcap. At first, the owner of the remains was not even assigned to the genus Homo.
Modern researchers are not inclined to consider Pithecanthropus the ancestor of modern man. Apparently, it represents a distant and isolated population of erectus, which, under the conditions of Indonesia, survived until the advent of modern humans and died out 27 thousand years ago.
heidelberg man
Heidelberg man (lat. Homo heidelbergensis) is a European species of Homo erectus (related to East Asian Sinanthropus and Indonesian Pithecanthropus) that lived in Europe. Apparently, it is a descendant of the European Homo antecessor and the immediate predecessor of the Neanderthal.
The first find dates back to 1907, when a jaw similar to a monkey was found near the city of Heidelberg, but with teeth similar to huge human teeth. Described and highlighted in separate view Professor O. Shetenzak. The age of the find was determined at 400 thousand years. The culture of the tools found nearby (stone axes and flakes) is characterized as the Shellic one. Schöninger spears suggest that the Heidelberg people hunted even elephants with wooden spears, but the meat was eaten raw, since no traces of fire were found in the parking lots.
The discovery of traces of the Heidelberg man in southern Italy allowed scientists to conclude that he was upright, and his height did not exceed 1.5 m.
A group of Spanish archaeologists led by Professor Eudald Carbonel during excavations in the caves of Atapuerca in northern Spain, near Burgos, discovered that the Heidelberg man who lived in them was a cannibal.
Professor Carbonel noted: “The remains of people found in Atapuerca indicate that they were eaten by their own kind. The meat from the bones belonging to ten representatives of prehistoric man was cut with special cutters, but not to satisfy hunger, but for ritual purposes.
Sinanthropus
Sinanthropus (from lat. Sinanthropus pekinensis - "Peking man", in the modern classification - Homo erectus pekinensis) - close to Pithecanthropus, but later and developed. It was discovered in China, hence the name.
He lived about 600-400 thousand years ago, during the period of glaciation. The volume of his brain reached 850-1220 cm; the left lobe of the brain, where the motor centers of the right side of the body are located, was somewhat larger than the right lobe. Consequently, the right hand of Sinanthropus was more developed than the left. Height - 155-160 cm. In addition to plant foods, he ate animal meat. He mined and knew how to maintain fire, dressed in skins. At the site of the sites were found: a thick layer of ash, about 6–7 m, tubular bones and skulls of large animals, tools made of stones, bones, horns.
The first Sinanthropus skull was discovered in the grottoes of Zhoukoudian near Beijing in 1923. Thanks to funding from Rockefeller, archaeologists (mostly German) continued to excavate the grottoes for four years, during which the discovery of forty individuals was announced. All discovered material disappeared during the Second World War while being sent to the United States.
A number of Western scientists were skeptical about the Chinese finds of fossil hominids. However, Zhoukoudian was nevertheless declared by UNESCO one of the World Heritage Sites. The study of sand from the grotto where the finds were made made it possible to establish the age of the Sinanthropus from Zhoukoudian - 770 thousand years (± 80 thousand years).
In 1964, the skull of Sinanthropus was found in Lantian (lat. Homo erectus lantianensis).
In the theory of multiregional anthropogenesis, Sinanthropus is considered as the main participant in the formation Mongoloid race at the stage of Homo erectus. However, many anthropologists are inclined in favor of the point of view that Sinanthropus was a dead end branch of the development of anthropoids.
Atlantrop
Atlantrop (ancient Greek bflbt, genus P. bflbnfpt - "Atlas" (mountainous country in Africa) and bnischrpt - "man") is a North African subspecies of Homo erectus. Other varieties of African Archanthropes are homo ergaster and the Rhodesian man. Known for the findings of the expedition led by K. Aramburg and R. Hoffstegter, made in 1954-1955. near Ternifin in the region of Oran (Algeria) - with three lower jaws and a parietal bone.
The found jaws are characterized by a primitive structure: massiveness, lack of a chin protrusion, and large teeth. Judging by these characters, Atlantrop was approximately at the same level of morphological development as Pithecanthropus.
Together with the bones, stone tools of the Acheulean culture of the early Paleolithic were found.
Homo geogicus
Georgian man (lat. Homo georgicus, “Georgian”) is an extinct species of people whose remains were found on the territory of modern Georgia.
All representatives of Homo georgicus died out in the process of evolution. Homo georgicus is believed to have been a local variant of Homo erectus or a transitional form between Homo habilis and Homo ergaster. The stone tools of Homo georgicus are rather primitive, only slightly more perfect than the Olduvian tools of the Handyman.
The first remains of Homo georgicus were discovered in 1991 in Dmanisi and date back to approximately 1 million 770 thousand years ago. Thus, a Georgian person is the most ancient view genus Homo, inhabiting Europe. The study of the remains of ancient hominids found in Georgia showed that once a large number of possible predecessors of modern humans probably migrated from Africa to Europe, where they either died out or (according to one theory) could have evolved into Homo erectus. In the second case, they could return back to Africa, where their further transition to Homo sapiens began.
David Lordkipanidze, who headed the archaeological research in Dmanisi, and his colleagues described four skulls, the brains of whose owners were about half as large (600-680 cm) as the brain modern man. Finds in Dmanisi from 1991 to 2007 represent parts of the skeleton of a teenager and three adults (now another, fifth skull has been found, which has not yet been described in scientific articles). The skull of a man without teeth is noteworthy, in which almost all tooth sockets are overgrown with bone substance. It is difficult to accurately determine the age of the deceased man, but, according to Lordkipanidze, “he could have been about forty years old, and the fact that the bones sprouted into the cavity of the dental sockets means that he lived for a couple more years after his teeth fell out.” Perhaps his tribesmen took care of him, says Lordkipanidze, which allowed the man who could not chew food to survive. If the archaeologist is correct, then ancient people might have felt something akin to compassion, an unexpected quality for those so early in evolution. Something similar can be found only among the Neanderthals who lived in Europe during the Ice Age. According to anthropologist Philip Reitmeier, a member of the Dmanisian research team, this may be a sign of a transition to a higher level of relationship, involving the ability to plan one's actions and share food with others.
Based on the analysis of the finds, it is assumed that Homo georgicus was 145–166 cm tall and weighed 40–50 kg. Judging by the proportions and shape of the bones, the legs of Homo georgicus resembled the legs of Homo sapiens, apart from a number of individual primitive features. The legs were almost as long as those of erectus and modern humans, and noticeably longer than those of Australopithecus. Apparently, representatives of Homo georgicus were excellent runners and could walk long distances. This is also evidenced by the structure of the vertebrae. Their hands, however, were more like those of Australopithecus, which is especially noticeable in the structure of the shoulder joint (in this respect, people from Dmanisi also resemble the "hobbits" from the island of Flores). According to the coefficient of encephalization, people from Dmanisi are closer to habilis than to erectus. According to the structure of the spine, they, on the contrary, are closer to the latter. A slight difference in the size of male and female individuals also makes the owners of the found remains related to Homo erectus and other later ancestors of Homo sapiens.
Contrary to previous guesses, the bones did not show any signs that their owners were victims of large predators. Some small bones were also preserved in their entirety, which are almost never preserved in this form after the meal of a predatory beast. In Dmanisi, not only human bones were found, but also quite a few skeletal remains of the same age of various large and small animals. On some bones, scratches left by stone tools have been preserved. One bone, which belonged to a large herbivore, was gnawed by a large carnivore after humans had scraped off the meat from it. This find cannot be rigorous proof that the Dmanisi people already knew how to hunt large animals, but it at least shows that they gained access to carcasses before their competitors - bears, hyenas, leopards and saber-toothed tigers.
Hence the name. He lived about 600-400 thousand years ago, during the glaciation period.
Homo erectus pekinensis (Sinathropus pekinensis) |
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AnatomyThe volume of his brain reached 950-1150 cm³; the left lobe of the brain, where the motor centers of the right side of the body are located, was somewhat larger than the right lobe. Therefore, the right hand was more developed than the left. Height - 1.55-1.6 m. LifeIn addition to plant foods, he ate animal meat. Perhaps he mined and knew how to maintain a fire. Used animal skins as clothing. They found: a thick layer of ash, about 6-7 m, tubular bones and skulls of large animals, tools made of stones, bones, horns. Scientists believe that the Sinanthropes were cannibals and hunted representatives of their own species. archaeological cultureDiscovery historyThe first Sinanthropus skull was discovered in the grottoes of Zhoukoudian near Beijing in 1927 by the Chinese anthropologist Pei Wenzhong (1904-1982). Over the years, an international team of scientists has worked here: Johann Gunnar Anderson, Birger Bolin (Sweden), Davidson Black (Canada), Pei Wenzhong (China), Otto Stansky (Austria), Walter Grainger (USA) and others. the excavations were attended by the French geologist and theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who, together with Henri Breuil, made discoveries in 1931, indicating that Sinanthropus used primitive tools and fire. In 1927, Davidson Black succeeded in persuading the Rockefeller Foundation to allocate money to fund a major excavation at Zhoukoudian. Excavations led by Chinese archaeologists Yang Zhongjian, Pei Wenzhong and Jia Lanpo in 1930 unearthed a second skullcap, followed by three skullcaps in 1936. Mostly skulls and their fragments were found; and isolated postcranial clasts. In total, the remains of forty individuals and more than 200 human fossils were announced (including six skulls or skullcaps, 19 large and many small skull fragments, 15 jaws, 157 teeth, three parts of the humerus, one collarbone, one lunate and one tibia bones). Excavations were halted in 1937 due to the Japanese invasion of China. The discovered material disappeared during World War II while being shipped to the United States. After the communist victory in civil war in China in 1949, excavations were resumed for a short time. New excavations were carried out in 1951, 1958-1960 and 1978-1980. In the 1959 season, another jaw was found belonging to an elderly woman. In June 2009, excavations were resumed. A number of Western scientists were skeptical about the Chinese finds of fossil hominid. However, Zhoukoudian was nevertheless declared by UNESCO one of the World Heritage Sites. The study of sand from the grotto where the finds were made made it possible to establish the age of the Sinanthropus from Zhoukoudian - 770 thousand years (± 80 thousand years). |
The "Peking Man" has little to do with Beijing - it was only found 45 km southwest of Beijing. He lived there about 700,000 years ago during the period of glaciation, when there was no modern humanity yet, he looked a bit like Pithecanthropus, but he was more developed. Its Latin name is Sinanthropus pekinensis - "Peking man", or simply Sinanthropus, and in modern classification he is Homo erectus pekinensis. Some scientists even believe that he is the missing link between the ape and the man, the ape man, but this is not indisputable. Other scientists consider it a dead end branch of human development.
This remarkable discovery was made, in general, by accident. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Swedish scientist I. G. Andersson worked as an archaeologist in China at the invitation of the Chinese government. Once he was brought skeletal fossils found in the suburbs of Beiping (Beijing), and he immediately realized that something unusual had fallen into his hands. The find was made in Zhoukoudian, and in the spring of 1918 Andersson began to excavate there, inviting the Austrian paleontologist Otto Zhdansky to work with him.
Zhoukoudan then was a small village of several houses, to which a railway line was connected for the extraction of coal and limestone. Fossil bones have been found in its vicinity for a long time. They called them "lungu" - dragon bones, and sold them as raw materials for medicines, hence the name of the mountain in which they found a cave with an unusual find - Mount Longgushan (Mountain of Dragon Bones), in the Xishan (Western Mountains) mountain range.
The mountains around Zhoukoudan are composed of various limestones and slates, they contain many karst caves, in one of which a large bone-bearing layer was discovered. But first, Andersson and Zhdansky found quartz with sharp edges, on which traces of manual processing were clearly visible, on the basis of which he made the assumption that the remains of an ancient person were somewhere nearby. In the summer of 1926, Zhdansky found the left lower front molar, which he identified as the tooth of an ape-man.
This discovery immediately excited the world scientific community, the discovery attracted many scientists, and the Rockefeller Foundation allocated money to finance major excavations from Zhoukoudian. Canadian anatomist Davidson Black founded a physical anthropology research organization, and an agreement was signed with the China Geological Research Institute for a joint Sino-US study of the Zhoukoudian site. The purpose of the search is the ancient settlements of human ancestors in Zhoukoudian.
In October 1927, archaeologists discovered a very interesting human tooth, after which Davidson Black announced a new species. primitive man, a Chinese ape-man from under Beijing, in short - "Beijing". Its age was determined - 500 thousand years ago (at present, based on a study of sand from the grotto where the finds were found, the age of Sinanthropus is determined at 770 thousand years).
In 1929, Pei Wenzhong, an employee of the Cenozoic Laboratory of the Geological Survey of China, was appointed head of the excavation. On December 2, workers discovered something unusual in the excavation, and Pei decided to inspect the find himself. He went down to the Kotsetang cave and found the skull of Sinanthropus in a karst cavity in the corner. In addition to the skull of Sinanthropus, a whole skull of a rhinoceros with a lower jaw was found in the cave. Skulls of such preservation had not been found before, and the layer underlying the upper one was so saturated with fossils that there was almost no rock filling the gaps between them.
The skull of Sinanthropus is approximately the same length as that of the Pithecanthropus, it also has massive superciliary arches, but it differs in strongly developed frontal tubercles, distinct parietal tubercles and a higher skull height, which indicates that Sinanthropus has a large brain volume (its brain volume reached 950 -1150 cm3). His height reached 1.55 - 1.6 meters.
Some scientists consider Sinanthropus as the main participant in the formation of the Mongoloid race. It is presumably believed that it arose in equatorial Africa in the Middle Pleistocene era (about 2 million years ago), after which it migrated to Europe (Heidelberg man), China (Peking man), Java (the ancestor of the notorious hobbits), and then forced it out Neanderthal about 300 thousand years ago, but these are just assumptions.
The Kotzetang Karst Cave is possibly an ancient habitation cave that was later filled with sedimentary rocks. Paleontological evidence shows that the ape-man lived here much earlier than the Neanderthals in Europe. This ancient man did not know fire, how could he live here in the ice age? (Scientists during excavations did not find traces of fire, then thick dark layers found in the section of the Zhoukoudian cave were interpreted as the results of many years of use of fire, but at present it is believed that evidence of the use of fire has not been found, and dark layers are of a sedimentogenic nature).
Despite the fact that in 1931 Japanese troops attacked northeast China, excavations continued. From 1927 to 1937, 5 skulls, 9 broken skulls and a huge amount of fossilized bones from about 40 people - men, women, children, which made up a whole population, as well as almost 10,000 stone products and fossils of animals and plants.
July 7, 1937 Japan attacked central China, Beijing was taken by Japanese troops, excavations stopped, but the excavated rare artifacts were still under Chinese control, as they were locked in the basement of the Concorde Joint Hospital in Beijing. Since America was not at war with Japan, the Japanese did not dare to enter American territory.
The German-American anatomist F. Weidenreich, who at that time was dealing with skulls, insisted on sending them to american museum natural history in New York, however, on the basis of the Sino-American agreement, everything that was dug up in Zhoukoudian belongs to China and cannot be taken out of it. So, there were three options for saving unique skulls: the first was to transport the skulls through the occupied territories to the temporary capital of China, Chongqing, the second was to secretly bury them in Beijing, and the third was to take them to the United States through the city of Qinhuangdao.
In 1941, the skulls were packed and delivered to a special US Marines train from Beijing to Qinhuangdao with a stop in Tianjin, and which arrived on December 8, but on December 7, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and America entered the war with Japan. The Japanese landed in the Shanghai area and captured an American Marine train and an American military camp.
Who got the skulls? Chinese, Americans or Japanese? The traces of the skulls were lost in the chaos of the war. But unexpectedly, the military council under the Japanese emperor in Beijing issued an order to search for fossils of the “Peking Man”. An investigator from the Japanese Higher Military Headquarters in Beijing interviewed all Chinese scientists related to Sinanthropus, visited Taijing and Qinhuangdao, but to no avail.
The fossils of the "Peking Man" finally disappeared and have not been found so far. Will they ever be found? The site of the Beijing Ape-Man in Zhoukoudang currently houses the Museum of Evolution, but its most valuable exhibits are missing. Excavations at the sites of Zhoukoudan are still ongoing, but no more whole skulls have been found, although the total number of finds is 17,000 stone artifacts and the remains of 50 people. In 1987, the primeval site of Sinanthropus was included in the Register of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Sinanthropus (lat. Sinanthropus pekinensis- "Peking man", in the modern classification - Homo erectus pekinensis) - a form (species or subspecies) of the genus people, close to, but later and developed. It was discovered in China, hence the name. He lived about 600-400 thousand years ago, during the period of glaciation. Research in 2009 revealed earlier dates for the existence of Sinanthropus. Approximately, in the range of 680-780 thousand years ago.
The volume of his sinanthropus brain reached 950-1150 cm 3; the left lobe of the brain, where the motor centers responsible for the right side of the body are located, was slightly larger compared to the right lobe. Consequently, the right hand of Sinanthropus was more developed than the left. The growth of Sinanthropus was 1.55-1.6 m.
Sinanthropus ate plant food. But besides this, he also ate animal meat. Most likely, he knew how to produce and maintain fire; dressed, apparently, in skins. At the site of the sites were found: a thick (about 6 meters) layer of ash, tubular bones and skulls of large animals, tools made of stones, bones, horns. Scientists believe that synanthropes could be cannibals and hunted representatives of their own species.
Sinanthropus remains were discovered between 1929 and 1937, in the Lower Cave in Zhoukoudian, near Beijing, China. 15 fragments of various skulls, 11 jaws, many teeth, some skeletal bones and a large number of stone tools were found. All of the fossils found were lost during World War II, but excellent copies and descriptions of the artifacts survive.
Sinanthropus (reconstruction). Stored at the Museum of Natural History, Washington, USA.
Sinanthropus skull (reconstruction, missing parts of the skull are shown in white). Composed of parts of various skulls from the Zhoukoudian caves.
Bust of Sinanthropus (Peking Man). Stored in the Zhoukoudian Museum, China.
A species that lives close to humans. Sinanthropes are closely connected with a person, often this connection is in the nature of a parasite. Sinanthropus species can perform the functions of natural orderlies, be carriers or carriers of dangerous to humans ... ... Financial vocabulary
Exist., Number of synonyms: 1 person (86) ASIS Synonym Dictionary. V.N. Trishin. 2013 ... Synonym dictionary
- (sinantropus) is one of the ancient forms of fossil man, which was previously isolated as an independent genus, and is currently classified as an archanthrope (Ivanova, 1965). S. made primitive tools and used ... ... Geological Encyclopedia
Sinanthropus- For a long time, however, the appearance of the Acheulian man himself was not known. The only European find (we mean the so-called Heidelberg jaw, found in 1907 near Heidelberg, in Germany, where it comes from ... ... The World History. Encyclopedia
Wed lat. sina China gr. anthropos man) the oldest type of fossil man, close to Pithecanthropus; the remains of Sinanthropus were found in China, near Beijing. New dictionary foreign words. by EdwART, 2009. Sinanthropus [cf. lat. Sina China + gr.… … Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
- (from late Latin Sina China and Greek ánthropos man) a representative of the most ancient fossil people (see Archanthropes), the skeletal remains of which were first discovered in China in the 20s. 20th century in the cave Kotsetang, near the railway station. station… … Big soviet encyclopedia
- (from late Latin Sina China and Greek antropos man) a fossil form of a person, identified by D. Black in 1927 on the basis of one tooth found in the area of Zhoukoudian near Beijing in China. Later (1929) a skullcap was discovered, behind a swarm ... ... Soviet historical encyclopedia
M. A fossil man who lived during the Lower Paleolithic and is a representative of the oldest stage of human development. Explanatory Dictionary of Ephraim. T. F. Efremova. 2000... Modern Dictionary Russian language Efremova
Sinanthropus, synanthropes, synanthropes, synanthropes, synanthropes, synanthropes, synanthropes, synanthropes, synanthropes, synanthropes, synanthropes, synanthropes (Source: "Full accentuated paradigm according to A. A. Zaliznyak") ... Forms of words
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