Page 192 - The Evolution Impasse 1

190

about Java Man. But following his dis- Another discovery that totally refu-
covery of Java Man, his comments re- ted Dubois’ ape-man
garding the fauna study made an abrupt nonsense came from
about-face. Dr. Walkhoff, an ant-
Marvin L. Lubenow spent some 20 hropologist, who fo-
years researching Java Man. In his book und the upper part of a
Bones of Contention, he states that Dubo- human molar tooth in
is did not possess sufficient geological a dried-up region of
knowledge when he discovered the fossil: the River Solo, no more than three kilo-
meters (two miles) from where Dubois
When Dubois issued his first description
of the fossil Javanese fauna he designa- had discovered Java Man. This fossili-
ted it Pleistocene. But no sooner had he zed molar was human and dated back to
discovered his Pithecanthropus than the a period as old as that to which Java Man
fauna had suddenly to become Tertiary. supposedly belonged. A team of experts
He did everything in his power to dimi- who were all evolutionists carried out
nish the Pleistocene character of the fau- this project, with the aim of finding fos-
na. 230
sils to verify evolution. Nonetheless, the
Dubois said that the thigh bone and head of the team, Professor Selenka,
the skull belonged to the same creature. concluded that modern man and Java
Yet eminent scientists of the time came Man had lived at the same time, and that
to the opposite conclusion. The famous there could therefore be no evolutionary
Cambridge University anatomist Sir Art- relationship between Java Man and mo-
hur Keith clearly stated that a skull with dern human beings.
such a volume could not belong to an In the final chapter of the report, Dr.
ape and revealed the absence of structu- Max Blanckenhorn, who acted as project
ral features permitting powerful mastica- secretary, apologized to readers for ha-
tion and particular to apes. Keith said ving demolished Dubois’ thesis with the-
that the skull was very definitely human. ir discovery instead of confirming it!
Dubois’ claims on the basis of these All this goes to show that there is no
two bones approached the fantastic. A difference between Java Man, depicted
directed perspective underlay his claims. as an ape-man, and modern humans. The
Since Dubois was an evolutionist, he ac- only thing that can be suggested with re-
ted in the light of certain preconceptions gard to Java Man is the small size of the
and was unwilling to consider any alter- skull volume, although there are races
native possibility. He also harbored ob- with small skulls living today. In additi-
vious hostility towards those who critici- on, among these races are native Austra-
zed his opinions. lians, who live not so very far from the

THE EVOLUTION IMPASSE I