PALEOANTHROPOLOGY (HUMAN PALEONTOLOGY). — It is the science that studies human skeletal remains found as fossils at prehistoric sites, in the open air or in caves, and in Quaternary alluvial deposits. The earliest human fossil remains known to date go back to the Early Pleistocene (v. UOMO, ETÀ dell').
The fossil representatives of humanity are divided into various genera and systematic species, according to their morphological characteristics and probable genealogical relationships. The oldest and most primitive are called protanthropians and all date from the Lower Paleolithic; their skeleton displays a mixture of ape-like and human characteristics, with the latter prevailing to a greater or lesser degree.
Among these, the Pithecanthropians (Pithecanthropus robustus, P. erectus) of Java should be remembered, represented by four more or less complete skulls and perhaps by several femora; the Sinanthropus (Sinanthropus Pechinensis), whose remains, attributable to about forty individuals, have been found in the caves of Ciukutien near Beijing; the Man of Mauer (Palaeanthropus [?] Heidelbergensis), represented by an extraordinarily robust mandible discovered in the vicinity of Heidelberg in Germany; and the Africanthropus (Africantropus Njarasensis), to which belongs a skull found in central-eastern Africa, representing an intermediate stage between protanthropians and palaeanthropians.
Some authors also regard the Gigantopithecines (Gigantopithecus blachi, Meyanthropus paleojasanicus) as protanthropians: gigantic beings whose teeth, recently discovered in southern China and Java, display both ape-like and human characteristics. These protanthropians, still very poorly known, show affinities on the one hand with the pithecanthropians and on the other with the australopithecines (Australopithecus Africanus, Plesianthropus Transvaalensis, Paranthropus robustus and P. crassidens), a curious group of South African anthropoid apes that display certain markedly human characteristics, especially in their dentition and pelvis. The Middle Paleolithic
is to be assigned, for the most part, the Palaeanthropians, in whom considerable ape-like characteristics persist, but human ones become decisively established. The most typical representative of this group is the Neanderthal Man (Palaeanthropus Neandertalensis), to which belong the remains of about eighty individuals, including those from the Italian sites of Saccopastore and the Circeo. Also belonging to this group are the Solo Man (Palaeanthropus Soloensis) of the Upper Paleolithic of Ngandong (Java) and the Rhodesian Man (Palaeanthropus Rhodesiensis), of uncertain but fairly recent age. It is uncertain whether an infant skull found at Modjokerto (Java) in strata corresponding to the Lower Paleolithic can be attributed to the Solo Man; some authors instead assign this skull to the pithecanthropians. A somewhat special position is occupied by certain palaeanthropians, such as the Man of Steinheim (Palaeanthropus [?] Steinheimensis) and the Man of Carmel (Palaeanthropus [?] Palestinus), who display a curious mixture of characteristics proper to the Neanderthal group and to Homo sapiens.
At the same time as the palaeanthropians, there also lived in Europe men who display more or less close affinities with Homo sapiens and are called Proto-phaneranthropians. Among these may be mentioned the Eoanthropus of Piltdown (Eoanthropus Dawsoni), once assigned to the Lower Paleolithic but now, on the basis of the “fluorine method,” considered to be of more recent age; the man of Swanscombe, accompanied by Acheulean industry and therefore assignable to the uppermost part of the Lower Paleolithic; the man of Fontéchevade (France), whose accompanying Tayacian industry places him at the boundary between the Lower and Middle Paleolithic; the Man of the Olmo, represented by a skull found in Umbria together with a Mousterian point (Middle Paleolithic); and finally the man of Quinzano (Verona), also probably belonging to the Middle Paleolithic. Some authors also assign other finds, such as the skull of Galley Hill and that of the Lloyds in London, to the Lower and Middle Paleolithic, but by now almost all paleoanthropologists agree in considering this attribution unfounded. The chronological position of the fossil remains from La Denise in France is uncertain.
At the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic, that is, during the
last glaciation (Würmian), the palaeanthropians became extinct in Europe, and human races of the modern type (Homo sapiens) spread throughout the ancient continent, though they were not as differentiated from one another as modern races, since the same individual sometimes displays a combination of characteristics that are now distributed among different races.
Among the European races of the Upper Paleolithic, mention should be made of those of Brunn, Perdmost and Berma, which possess very pronounced supraorbital arches; the negroids of Grimaldi; the Cro-Magnon race, of tall stature (up to 1.89 m), which according to some authors is still represented in certain present-day populations; and the race of Combe Capelle, variously interpreted as Eskimoid, Australoid, Proto-Mediterranean, etc. All these races belong to the Aurignacian. Somewhat more recent are the Man of Chancelade, interpreted as Eskimoid, and the man of Oberkassel, belonging to the Magdalenian. The skeletons from the cave of S. Teodoro (Messina), and perhaps that from the Maiella, represent the earliest Mediterraneans, assignable to the Upper Paleolithic. The skulls of Ofnet (Bavaria), among which are the oldest brachycephals known to date, and the skeletons of Téviec (Brittany), Mugem (Portugal), and the cave of the Arene Candide in Liguria are assignable to the Mesolithic. In Asia, the earliest representatives of Homo sapiens are the skeletons from Šukbah and 'Ajiš (Palestine), accompanied by Natufian industry (Upper Paleolithic or Mesolithic), and the skulls from Wadjak (Java), considered proto-Australian and, with reservations, assigned to the Upper Paleolithic. The skulls and skeletons from Talgai and Cohuna in Australia are likewise considered proto-Australian. Africa has yielded numerous skeletal remains assignable, with greater or lesser certainty, to the Upper Paleolithic. Some time ago, the discovery of several skeletons at Oldoway, Kanam and Kanjera in East Africa (Kenya and Tanganyika) caused a great sensation. According to their discoverers, these remains of Homo sapiens dated from the Middle Paleolithic or even the Lower Paleolithic and belonged to the earliest representatives of humanity. By now, however, almost all authors consider them assignable to the Upper Paleolithic or even to the Neolithic, and believe that they were buried in pre-existing deposits. The skeletal remains of Homo sapiens discovered at Asselar (southern Sahara), Mechta-el-Arbi and Alalu-bu-Rummel (Algeria) are assigned to the Upper Paleolithic. The age of the skeletons from Elmenteita, Gamble, Boskop, Springbok, Florisbad and Cape Flats, all localities in Southern Africa, is uncertain; they are assigned to the Upper Paleolithic or to more recent periods. All belong to Homo sapiens and often already display the characteristics of present-day African races.
In America, man appeared relatively late, and the oldest evidence of human presence (the Falson Industry) dates to the Upper Paleolithic. Truly fossil skeletal remains are thus far very rare, and all are attributable to Homo sapiens. Worthy of mention are the Australoid skull from Punin (Ecuador) and the heterogeneous complex of the so-called Lagoa Santa race (Brazil). The Argentine paleontologist F. Ameghino believed that he had discovered in the alluvial formations of the Pampas a series of human fossils (Tetraprothomo, Triprothomo, Diprothomo, Prothomo) that would have demonstrated the evolutionary origin of Man from a group of small, Tertiary American apes (Homunculidae). It was later established, however, that the skeletal remains in question were in part simply apelike, and in part human with abnormal features resulting from artificial deformations of the skull, which are still practiced today by South American indigenous populations.
Beginning in the Neolithic, the earth was completely populated by the human races still living today (with the exception of the Tasmanian race, which became extinct toward the end of the nineteenth century), and thus one leaves the field of human paleontology.
As regards the problem of human origins and evolution, V. UOMO, ORIGINE dell'.
Turin 1941; C. Arambourg, La genèse de l'humanité, Paris 1943; V. Marcozzi, La vita e l'uomo, Milan 1946; M. Boule, Les Hommes fossiles, 3rd ed., edited by H. Vallois, Masson—Paris 1946; P. Leonardi, L'evoluzione dei viventi, Brescia 1950; W. E. Les Gros Clark, History of the primates, London 1950.