Forbidden Archeology_ The Full Unabridged Edition - Michael A. Cremo [328]
Dubois observed that although the trinil skull was very apelike in some of its features, such as the prominent brow ridges, the thighbone was almost human. this indicated that Pithecanthropus had walked upright, hence the species designation erectus. it is important, however, to keep in mind that the femur of Pithecanthropus erectus was found fully 45 feet from the place where the skull was unearthed, in a stratum containing hundreds of other animal bones. this circumstance makes doubtful the claim that both the thighbone and the skull actually belonged to the same creature or even the same species.
7.1.3 Reports Reach Europe
When Dubois’s reports began reaching Europe, they received much attention. in Meeting Prehistoric Man, von Koenigswald (1956, p. 26) commented on Java man’s significance: “Dubois’s find came at just the right moment: at a time when the conflict around Darwinism was at its height. For the scientific world it constituted the first concrete proof that man is subject not only to biological but also to paleontological laws.” the discoverer of Lucy, Donald c. Johanson, in describing the expectant mood of scientists in the late nineteenth century, wrote: “if the theory of evolution had any validity whatsoever, then human fossils would have to reveal an increasing retreat toward primitiveness as one tracked them deeper into time” (Johanson and edey 1981, p. 30). Pithecanthropus erectus appeared to amply satisfy this requirement, and even today, it is advertised (under the name Homo erectus) as a critical piece of evidence confirming the theory of evolution.
Haeckel, of course, was among those celebrating Pithecanthropus as the strongest proof to date of human evolution. “now the state of affairs in this great battle for truth has been radically altered by Eugene Dubois’s discovery of the fossil Pithecanthropus erectus,” proclaimed the triumphant Haeckel. “He has actually provided us with the bones of the ape-man I had postulated. This find is more important to anthropology than the much-lauded discovery of the X-ray was to physics” (Wendt 1972, p. 167). Haeckel would also state that Java man “was truly a Pliocene remainder of that famous group of the higher catarrhines [Old World apes], which were the pithecoid ancestors of man. He is indeed the long-searched-for Missing Link” (Bowden 1977, p. 128). there is an almost religious tone of prophecy and fulfillment in Haeckel’s remarks. But Haeckel had a history of overstating physiological evidence to support the doctrine of evolution; an academic court at the University of Jena once found him guilty of falsifying drawings of embryos of various animals in order to demonstrate his particular view of the origin of species (Section 1.3).
7.1.4 Dubois Journeys to Europe with Java Man
In 1895, Dubois decided to return to Europe to display his Pithecanthropus to what he was certain would be an admiring and supportive audience of scientists. taking 215 cases of other fossils, he boarded a ship along with his family. during a storm at sea, Dubois was especially concerned about his prized Pithecanthropus erectus specimens. Standing with the box containing Pithecanthropus, Dubois said to his wife, “if something happens, you’re to take care of the children. I’ve got to look after this” (time-Life 1973, p. 44).
Soon after arriving in Europe, Dubois exhibited his specimens and presented reports at the third international congress of Zoology at Leyden, Holland. Although some of the scientists present at the congress were, like Haeckel, anxious to support the discovery as a fossil ape-man, others thought it merely an ape, while still others challenged the idea that the bones belonged to the same individual.
Dubois exhibited his treasured bones at Paris,