Pithecanthropus

Pithecanthropus (Pithecanthropus erectus) is a species of fossilized great ape, the direct ancestor of modern humans.

Opening:
In 1891, the remains of Pithecanthropus were discovered in Tanzania, on the island of Java. In 1901, Dutch anthropologist Eugene Dubois announced the discovery of a new species of ancient man. Subsequently, several other locations of Pithecanthropus were discovered in Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

Description:
Pithecanthropus was small in stature - about 1.5 m, with a massive head and relatively short limbs. The skull was larger than that of modern humans, but less massive than that of Neanderthals.

Pithecanthropus lived in Africa from 1.8 to 0.7 million years ago. They had the rudiments of speech and used stone tools.

However, despite this, Pithecanthropus were not the first representatives of the genus Homo. Previously, ancient hominids lived in Africa, such as Archanthropus and Australopithecus, who also had signs of upright walking.

In addition, modern research shows that Pithecanthropus may have been descendants of not only Archanthropus, but also other species of ancient hominids.

**Pithecanthropus** was found in Indonesia in 1895. This fossil human species is described as the closest to an early human ancestor. At that time, science believed that humans could only be bred from mammalian primates. Therefore, Pithecanthropus is considered a proto-man. For several more years, scientists doubted it, and only later confirmed that this species was actually human. This event is considered fundamental in the history of anthropology. This man received his scientific name due to the composition of two Greek words - “pitheki” (monkeys) and “anthropos” (human). The name "pithecanthropus" means "ape-man".