Known now as Eugene Dubois, Marie Eugene Francois Thomas Dubois
was born in Eijsden (Netherlands) on January 28th, 1858 and died in Haelen
(Netherlands) on December 16th, 1940. Dubois, a surgeon, anthropologist,
anatomist and paleontologist earned worldwide fame through his discovery of
Pithecanthropus erectus (now
Homo erectus), the
"upright, ape-man of Java."
Dubois was intent on finding the "missing link", the evolutionary connection between apes and modern humans. In 1891, while digging into fossil rich ash and river sediments in Java, he found Pithecanthropus erectus. The name meant "ape-human which stood upright." Dubois was scorned for his find and his belief that he had found the missing link. Modern science, however, has vindicated Eugene Dubois for he was the first to find what we know now as Homo erectus, a direct ancestor of fully modern man.
Dubois attended Amerstad University and earned a degree in Anatomy. In 1899, he became Professor of Crystallography, Mineralogy, Geology and Paleontology at Amerstad. In the meantime, he began searching for man's primitive ancestors in the Netherlands East Indies. Supported by the Dutch colonial government, he worked in Sumatra and Java from 1888 to 1895; from 1891 to 1893, Dubois found the famous remains of Pithecanthropus (a skull cap, a few molars, and a femur) near the village of Trinil, Java. In his view, the remains provided the missing link between ape and man.
After returning to Europe in 1895, he spent many years trying to convince the world of his findings. Dubois’ fossils were the first hominid remains to be recognized as material proof for human evolution. His findings helped give shape to the rising science of paleoanthropology.
After the 1900s, he withdrew from the controversy on Pithecanthropus and devoted himself to various anatomical, paleontological and geological studies.
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Written by: Students in an Introduction to Anthropology Class, Minnesota State University, Mankato, Minnesota