Naturalis Biodiversity Center, P.O. Box 9517, 2300 RA, Leiden, the Netherlands; Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9514, 2300 RA, Leiden, the Netherlands.
Research Center for Archaeometry, National Research and Innovation Agency, Jl. Condet Pejaten 4, Pasar Minggu, Jakarta Selatan 12510, Indonesia.
J Hum Evol. 2024 May;190:103516. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103516. Epub 2024 Mar 28.
Following the discovery of hominin fossils at Trinil (Java, Indonesia) in 1891 and 1892, Eugène Dubois named a new species, now known as Homo erectus. Although the main historical events are well-known, there appears to be no consensus regarding two important aspects of the naming of the species, including what constitutes the original publication of the name, and what is the name-bearing type specimen. These issues are addressed in this paper with reference to original sources and the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. Our review confirms earlier studies that cite the published quarterly fieldwork report covering the 3rd quarter of 1892 as the original publication naming the species erectus. However, until recently, the correct publication year of 1893 has consistently been cited as 1892, and it has rarely been recognized that the author of the publication was anonymous, even though the author of the species is specifically named. Importantly, Dubois assigns all three hominin fossils found at Trinil up to that moment to the new species, explicitly stating that they belong to a single individual. The three fossils, a molar, a calotte, and a femur, therefore jointly constitute the original holotype. However, the femur most likely derives from younger strata than the other hominins and shows fully modern human-like morphology, unlike subsequently discovered H. erectus femora. Moreover, there is no consensus over the affinities of the molar, and if it is H. erectus rather than an extinct ape, there is no evidence that it belongs to the same individual as the calotte. Excluding these two fossils from the holotype, the calotte is the appropriate fossil to retain the role as name-bearing specimen.
1891 年和 1892 年在印度尼西亚爪哇的特里尼尔发现古人类化石后，欧仁·杜布瓦命名了一个新物种，现称为直立人。尽管主要的历史事件广为人知，但关于该物种的命名，有两个重要方面似乎没有共识，包括什么构成了名称的原始出版物，以及什么是具有名称的模式标本。本文通过参考原始资料和《国际动物命名法规》来解决这些问题。我们的回顾证实了早期的研究，这些研究引用了涵盖 1892 年第三季度的季度野外工作报告，作为命名该物种直立人的原始出版物。然而，直到最近，正确的出版年份 1893 一直被错误地引用为 1892 年，而且很少有人认识到该出版物的作者是匿名的，尽管该物种的作者被具体命名。重要的是，杜布瓦将在特里尼尔发现的所有三个古人类化石都归入到新物种中，明确指出它们属于一个个体。这三个化石，一个臼齿、一个头盖骨和一个股骨，因此共同构成了原始的正模式标本。然而，股骨很可能来自比其他古人类更年轻的地层，并且具有完全现代人类的形态，不像后来发现的直立人股骨。此外，臼齿的亲缘关系也没有共识，如果它是直立人而不是灭绝的猿，那么没有证据表明它与头盖骨属于同一个个体。将这两个化石排除在正模式标本之外，头盖骨是保留具有名称的标本的适当化石。
