Editing Java Man (section)

{{short description|Subspecies of Homo erectus (fossil) discovered on the island of Java in 1891}}
{{Use dmy dates|cs1-dates=ly|date=December 2020}}
{{Good article}}
{{Subspeciesbox
 | fossil_range        = {{Fossil range|1.49|0.7}}[[Pleistocene]]
 | image               = Pithecanthropus_erectus-PeterMaas_Naturalis.jpg
 | image_caption       = The [[syntype]] fossils of Java Man (''H. e. erectus''), at [[Naturalis]], [[Leiden]]
 | genus               = Homo
 | species             = erectus
 | species_extinct     = yes
 | subspecies          = erectus
 | authority           =
}}

'''Java Man''' ('''''Homo erectus erectus''''', formerly also '''''Anthropopithecus erectus''' or'' '''''Pithecanthropus erectus''''') is an [[early human]] fossil discovered in 1891 and 1892 on the island of [[Java]] (Indonesia). Estimated to be between 700,000 and 1,490,000 years old,<ref>{{Cite book |last= Uetrakulwit |first=Prasit Uetrakulwit |title=Basic History 2008 For students |publisher=Aimphan press co. Ltd. |year=2020 |isbn=978-616-07-1454-4 |edition=1st |location=Nonthaburi Province, Thailand, Pak Kret District, Ban Mai Subdistrict, Phra Mae Karun Alley |language=Thai}}</ref> it was, at the time of its discovery, the oldest [[hominid]] fossil ever found, and it remains the [[type specimen]] for ''[[Homo erectus]]''.

Led by [[Eugène Dubois]], the excavation team uncovered a [[tooth]], a [[Calvaria (skull)|skullcap]], and a [[femur|thighbone]] at [[Trinil]] on the banks of the [[Solo River]] in [[East Java]]. Arguing that the fossils represented the "[[Transitional fossil#Missing links|missing link]]" between apes and humans, Dubois gave the species the [[scientific name]] ''[[Anthropopithecus]] erectus'', then later renamed it ''Pithecanthropus erectus''. The fossil aroused much controversy. Within a decade of the discovery almost eighty books or articles had been published on Dubois's finds. Despite Dubois's argument, few accepted that Java Man was a [[Transitional fossil|transitional form]] between apes and humans.{{Sfn|Swisher|Curtis|Lewin|2000|p=70}} Some dismissed the fossils as [[ape]]s and others as [[Anatomically modern humans|modern human]]s, whereas many scientists considered Java Man as a primitive side branch of evolution not related to modern humans at all. In the 1930s Dubois made the claim that ''Pithecanthropus'' was built like a "giant [[gibbon]]", a much misinterpreted attempt by Dubois to prove that it was the "missing link". Eventually, similarities between Java Man and ''Sinanthropus pekinensis'' ([[Peking Man]]) led [[Ernst Mayr]] to rename both ''[[Homo erectus]]'' in 1950, placing them directly in the human [[Phylogenetic tree|evolutionary tree]].

To distinguish Java Man from other ''Homo erectus'' populations, some scientists began to regard it as a subspecies, ''Homo erectus erectus'', in the 1970s. [[Early hominids in Southeast Asia|Other fossils]] found in the first half of the twentieth century in Java at [[Sangiran]] and [[Mojokerto]], all older than those found by Dubois, are also considered part of the species ''Homo erectus''. The fossils of Java Man have been housed at the [[Rijksmuseum van Geologie en Mineralogie]] and later [[Naturalis]] in the [[Netherlands]] since 1900.