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Dinoglyyfit - Dinoglyphs - Esihistorialliset eläimet historiankirjoissa - Prehistoric Creatures Documented by the Ancient Man

HOMO ERECTUS

The frontispiece drawing to the English edition of Ernst Haeckel's Evolution of Man (trans. 1903) presents a skull labelled "Australian Negro" as an intervening evolutionary stage between the "mediterranean" skull and those of the lower primates (from the 1891 ed. of the Anthropogenie).

Homo erectus prototype. The appearance of the Pithecantropus alalus alias Pithecantropus erectus alias Homo erectus - before found by Eugene Dubois, a disciple of Haeckel. Drawn by Gabriel Max, from the 1898 ed. of the Natürliche Schöpfungs-Geschicte.

Haeckel gave the Linnaen binomial classification name Pithecanthropus alalus ('ape-man without speech') for the first "forefather" of man - before it was dug up (Milner 1990, pp. 147-8). The Java-Man was a discovery of Eugene Dubois, another prospect of Haeckel. The connection has been covered by changing the name to Pithecanthropus erectus, and finally to Homo erectus. Haeckel had another artist, Gabriel Max, to draw the imaginative incarnation.

 Haeckel's inspiration on Federley could be compared to this one of the most well-known of the more remote students, with all of the ambiguities from the shores of Java. Dubois, however, had the courage to discard his dear yet more or less dishonest discovery when he was older. "Eugene" did not remain so popular first name for through generations.

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