Johann Carl Fuhlrott (31 December 1803,Leinefelde, Germany – 17 October 1877,Wuppertal) was an early Germanpaleoanthropologist. He is famous for recognizing the significance of the bones ofNeanderthal 1, a Neanderthal specimen discovered by German laborers who were digging for limestone in Neander valley (Neanderthal in German) in August 1856. Originally disregarded, Fuhlrott, to his eternal credit, had the insight to recognize them for what they were: the remains of a previously unknown type of human.[1]
His parents were the innkeeper Johannes Philipp Fuhlrott and his wife Maria Magdalena, née Nussbaum. His parents had died by the time he was ten and he was raised by his uncle, the Catholic priest Carl Bernhard Fuhlrott, inSeulingen. In 1835 he married Josepha Amalia Kellner (1812–1850), with whom he had six children.
After studying mathematics and natural sciences at theUniversity of Bonn, Fuhlrott became a teacher at theGymnasium in Elberfeld. In 1856, workers in alime quarry in the nearby canyon called Gesteins orNeandertal (southwest ofMettmann) showed him bones they had found in a cave and thought to belong to a bear. Fuhlrott identified them as human and thought them to be very old. He recognized them to be different from the usual bones of humans and showed them to the Professor ofAnatomy at the University of Bonn,Hermann Schaaffhausen. Together they announced the discovery publicly in 1857. In their view the bones represented the remnants of an ancient human race, different from contemporary humans. Their views were not readily accepted as it contradicted literal interpretations of the Bible, andCharles Darwin's work aboutevolution had not yet been published.
Today, Fuhlrott and Schaaffhausen are considered to be the founders ofpaleoanthropology, and thetaxon they discovered is referred to asHomo neanderthalensis in honor of the site where it was first identified.
Media related toJohann Carl Fuhlrott at Wikimedia Commons
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