On 1939, von Koenigswald visited his colleague, Weindenreich in Beijing. He also brings fossils from Java. In the Weindenreich’s laboratory, for 2 months, both of them compare homonid speciment from 2 regions of Asia; Sangiran and Zhoukoudian. That study of 2 scientificts proved to be very influential on their interpretation about human evolution.
Since 1940, Weindenreich do a deeper research about the relation between Sinanthropus and Pithecanthropus. As researcher focused on fossils anatomy, Weindenreich conclude that Pithecanthropus is older and more primitive than Sinanthropus. He and Koenigswald agreed to combine these 2 species into 1 taxon, Pithecanthropus erectus.
When second World War happened, Weindenreich who has been displaced from China and back to America and lost contact with von Koenigswald. But armed with replica findings of von Koenigswald, Weindenreich continue his research to describe hominids of Java. Pithecanthropus robustus taxon means “Muscular Ape Human” and then it introduced by Weidenreich on 1945, to accomodate skull findings of Pithecanthropus IV found by von Koenigswald on 1938-1939. Based on Weidenreich’s view, the skull of Pithecanthropus IV is different with the skull of Pithecanthropus 1-III, which classified into Pithecanthropus erectus. Pithecanthropus robustus created to show that Pithecanthropus IV taxon is stronger and more primitive than Pithecanthropus erectus. Source: Museum of Early Human Cluster Ngebung
Translate by Mutiara Solikhah
