Eugène Dubois
Marie Eugène François Thomas Dubois | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | December 16, 1940 Haelen, Netherlands | (aged 82)
Nationality | Dutch |
Alma mater | University of Amsterdam |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Paleoanthropology, Geology |
Marie Eugène François Thomas Dubois (French: [øʒɛn dybwɑ]; 28 January 1858 – 16 December 1940) was a Dutch paleoanthropologist and geologist. He earned worldwide fame for his discovery of Pithecanthropus erectus (later redesignated Homo erectus), or "Java Man". Although hominid fossils had been found and studied before, Dubois was the first anthropologist to embark upon a purposeful search for them.
Life and work
MEFT. Dubois was born and raised in the village of
Resisting his father's plan for him to train to follow in his footsteps, Dubois, encouraged by his teachers, decided in 1877 to study medicine at the
Dubois contributed an article on
Reasoning that the origins of the human species must be in the tropics, in 1887 he joined the Dutch army and arranged to be posted in the Dutch East Indies (the Dutch colony that is now independent Indonesia), to the dismay of his academic colleagues. With his wife and newborn daughter he moved to the colony to search for the missing link in human evolution. (He was unalterably convinced there was only one missing link.)[3]
Hominid discoveries
Between 1887 and 1895, Dubois searched at potential sites near rivers and in caves, first on the island of
In 1891, Dubois discovered remains of what he described as "a species in between humans and apes". He called his finds Pithecanthropus erectus ("ape-human that stands upright") or Java Man. Today, they are classified as Homo erectus ("human that stands upright").[4] These were the first specimens of early hominid remains to be found outside of Africa or Europe. During this period Dubois carried out fieldwork at sites such as Sangiran in Central Java and Trinil in East Java.
Later years
In 1897, the University of Amsterdam awarded Dubois an honorary doctorate in botany and zoology, but he had to wait until 1899 for a professorship. In that year, he was appointed a professor in geology, a function that did not keep him from his research in anatomy. He was also (from 1897 until 1928) keeper of paleontology, geology and mineralogy at Teylers Museum,[5] where he also kept the H. erectus remains.
In 1919 he became member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.[6]
Although the scientific debate slowly began to turn in his favour in the 1920s and 1930s, he died embittered in 1940.[7] He was buried in unconsecrated ground on 16 December 1940 in Venlo, "Algemene Begraafplaats", grave number NH2\26\-\BR.
Legacy
His paleontological collection and scientific archive remain at
See also
- List of fossil sites (with link directory)
- List of hominina (hominid) fossils(with images)
- International Museum for Family History
References
- ^ "Rijksmuseum Research Library - online-catalogue". euromuse.net. Archived from the original on 2015-10-18. Retrieved 2014-06-15.
- ^ "Summary: Prehistorical flint-mining in the Netherlands: Rijckholt (Ryckholt) - St. Geertruid". Vuursteenmijnen.nl. Retrieved 2014-06-15.
- ^ Morwood and van Oosterzee 2007: 124
- ^ [1] Archived May 15, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ In this position, he was the successor to Tiberius Cornelis Winkler, who was one of the earliest translators (1860) of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species and a very early proponent of human evolution.
- ^ "M.E.F.Th. Dubois (1858 - 1940)". Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 18 July 2015.
- ISBN 978-1588346360.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ de Vos, J. (2004). "The Dubois collection: a new look at an old collection" (PDF). Scripta Geologica. 4: 267–285.
- ^ "The discovery and re-discovery of Eugène Dubois", Radio Netherlands Archives, November 7, 2000
- ^ "206241 Dubois (2002 WM28)". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
- ^ "MPC/MPO/MPS Archive". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
- Morwood, Mike, and van Oosterzee, Penny. 2007. A new human: the startling discovery and strange story of the "hobbits" of Flores, Indonesia. Smithsonian Books.
Further reading
- Pat Shipman, The Man who Found the Missing Link. Eugène Dubois and His Lifelong Quest to Prove Darwin Right, Harvard University Press (April 30, 2002), 528 pages, ISBN 0-674-00866-9.
External links
- Works by or about Eugène Dubois at Wikisource
- (in Dutch) DUBOIS - The Quest for the Missing Link, www.eugenedubois.eu
- Biographies: Eugene Dubois at TalkOrigins Archive
- https://web.archive.org/web/20180903062402/http://www.cryingvoice.com/Evolution/ApeMen2.html
- Fossil Hominids, Human Evolution: Thomas Huxley & Eugene Dubois at www.understandingevolution.org