I problemi dell'origine dell'uomo e la paleontologia
In spite of the undoubted advances made by paleontology, the problems concerning the origins of man, instead of becoming clearer, have become more obscure. It is useful for the theologian to know them and to know how the anthropologist puts the questions. How did humanity appear: 500,000 years ago,...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | Italian |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Ed. Pontificia Univ. Gregoriana
1978
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| In: |
Gregorianum
Year: 1978, Volume: 59, Issue: 1, Pages: 175-189 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In spite of the undoubted advances made by paleontology, the problems concerning the origins of man, instead of becoming clearer, have become more obscure. It is useful for the theologian to know them and to know how the anthropologist puts the questions. How did humanity appear: 500,000 years ago, a million, two million? What is the meaning of the terms used by the anthropologists: Homo sapiens, Homo erectus, Homo habilis? Do they designate distinct human types or stages through which actual humanity has passed? And did this appear with one couple only or with many couples and many times and perhaps even in different periods? And what was the course it ran before it reached the human stage? In the present article, beginning from the principle of the Tertiary era, that is, from the appearance of many primitive Primates (the systematic order to which man belongs) through the various periods of the Tertiary era (Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene) are exposed the paleontological findings which present some affinity with the human type, to accertain if some one of them can really be considered a Prehominid. The discoveries are almost all fragmentary, and complete or almost complete skeletons are rare. And hence judgement on the nature of the same is often quite difficult. Nevertheless for almost the totality the simian or anthropoid nature is clear. Only two forms: the Propliopithecus of the Oligocene and the Ramapithecus of the Miocene and of the ancient Pliocene can be considered forms which approach the human phylum. But the opinions of the scientists are not in agreement, both by reason of the fragmentary condition of the findings — incomplete mandibles — and by reason of the enigmatic character of the same. At the end of the Tertiary and Quaternary the paleontological findings become much more numerous and complete and permit the facing of problems indicated here and which will be treated in a next article. |
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: Gregorianum
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