Eugene Dubois



Marie Eugène François Thomas Dubois (1858 - 1940) Eugene Dubois was a former student of Ernst Haeckel and the first person to intentionally seek a missing link in human ancestry. He focused his work in east Asia which is one location Haeckel thought humans might have evolved.

On the Indonesian Island of Java, Dubois found an ape-like skullcap and a year later found a human-like thigh bone and he concluded they were from the same animal which he called pithecanthropus erectus, or upright ape man. It also became popularly known as Java Man. Some scientists disagreed with the interpretation and stated the femur and skullcap were not from the same animal. Further, distinctly human skulls were also found at Java and kept hidden by Dubois.

Currently, Java Man has been re-designated as an early specimen of the large Homo Erectus group.