Viola T. Dobosi: Paleolithic Man in the Által-ér Valley (Tata, 1999)

Man There was no idea of comparable revolutionary effect on the development of biology as evolution. When Charles Darwin worded in a generally understandable manner the rules of the formation and development of species, there were already a range of misinterpreted anthropological finds inside the store-rooms of museums, awaiting for correct interpretation in the historical process of the formation and development of mankind. By the end of the 19th century, a triple division was established following the main line of the biological evolution of mankind that can be considered valid even in our days. Valid against all odds, as the phyletic tree of Man as a biological species spread extensively around the bare stem during one and a half century of research. New finds, followed by new theories, new chronological schemes and new methods feed this tree, to become more exuberant and more tangled. Hungary is in a fortunate situation: the process of human development can be illustrated well on Hungarian finds with the exception of the Australopithecine line, often mentioned in popular scientific communiqués. This populous branch of Hominids, however, seem to be restricted to the eastern and southern parts of Africa and can be considered as a so-far extinct side-branch of evolution. The sequence starts with the Ramapithecines. It was a great scientific sensation when, by the 60-ies of the last century, the lignite cover layer of the open-air iron ore mine at Rudabánya yielded a rich palaeontological find assemblage. It contained remains of cca. 80 individual finds of the Ramapithecine type, termed after the site Rudapithecus. According to the opinion of experts, this population of Primates was universally spread in the Old World 10-12 million years age, though it was not very frequent. According to the anatomical features found on the bones these beings were standing at the beginning of the row leading to humanity; the anatomical features already carried in themselves the possibility, moreover, necessity of a human type of development. Following the age of the Ramapithecines, for a long period of time no finds are known to us from Hungary. This does not imply a break in the development because the main proof of the continuity of the process is modern man himself. The next phase of the evolution is documented in Africa: the age of the Australopithecines. Several sub-species, different in appearance as well as way of life populated the Savanna of Eastern- and Southern Africa about 2-4 million years ago. (The determination of the age is a source of many 14