The term "ape man" appeared very early, and literally, it is easy to understand the reason for its original name, which refers to the human beings who appeared in the transition from ape to man.
The earliest use of the term "ape man" was the German naturalist and evolutionist Haeckel, in the late 19th century, when he studied neanderthal skeleton fossils, he proposed a hypothesis of human evolutionary path, he believes that humans have experienced a continuous evolutionary process of ape-ape-ape-Neanderthal-modern man, and apes and Neanderthals (Neanderthals) are early humans of a certain evolutionary period, of which apes are the most special, because it is the key to apes to humans.
Such a statement seems logical, and it was also the mainstream at the time, you know, in the late 19th century, finding the missing link between apes and humans was the common pursuit of professionals and amateur players. But later it was found that the evolution of human beings is not a straight line, but a huge evolutionary tree, the original discovery of the so-called ape fossils, their more prominent feature is upright, the concept of ape people has gradually been replaced by "Homo erectus", many early humans who were once named "ape man", the ape word in the name has gradually been erased, such as what we now call "Javanese", originally called "Javan ape man", the same, now we call "Peking man", originally called "Beijing ape man".
Of course not. As mentioned earlier, the early humans who were initially named "xx ape people" were basically Homo erectus, and the Peking ape man was no exception. The discovery process of the Beijingers must be familiar to us, and he is mentioned over and over again in history textbooks. In 1923, when archaeologists found two fossilized human teeth on Keel Mountain in Zhoukoudian, Beijing, no one could be completely sure of their attribution, so the original names of the two teeth were only the "real people?" that the researchers labeled. That's it. With the excavation and research, his name was gradually determined, and he experienced the "Chinese Ape Man Beijing Species", "Beijing Homo erectus", "Beijing Ape Man" and "Peking Man".
The characteristics of peking man skeleton fossils are indeed transitional, but not the transition between apes and humans. From the characteristics of skulls, limb bones and other bones, the skulls of Peking people are relatively primitive, such as their skulls have a more obvious sagittal crest, the brow bone is thick and connected left and right, the snout is prominent, and the brain volume is about 1088 ml. At the same time, their limb bones are similar to those of modern people.
This skeletal transition is known as "mosaic evolution" and is also seen in other paleohuman fossils, such as Australopithecus australopithecus, whose pelvic and lower limb bones are significantly closer to those of modern humans than the brain. For example, the Javanese, who are also Homo erectus with the Pekingese, also show characteristics such as skulls close to apes and femurs similar to modern humans.
As for the transition between apes and humans, there is no definite answer to this question, but only a missing link, depending on the discovery of fossil data. Further, the missing link itself is not a fixed question, because the discovery of new fossils is likely to overturn previous assertions, such as 30 years ago, the 4.4 million-year-old Ramida ape fossil is considered to be the closest species to the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees; 20 years ago, the 6 million-year-old Tugan primitive became the new focus; and today the story often begins with the Chadian Shah people 7 million years ago.
In addition, the term transition itself is not rigorous, because evolution is a dynamic process of survival of the fittest, and populations change adaptively as the environment changes. Similarly, the "transition" cannot be simplified, such as understanding it as a mixture of the characteristics of two species, and then there will be a forgery forged by adding the mandible of the ape to the skull of modern man, like the "Pirdang man".
Finally, we must also be clear that human beings have not experienced the stage of "being chimpanzees" or "being gorillas" and other apes, because the apes mentioned in the transition between apes and humans are not chimpanzees, gorillas, gibbons and other apes, but some kind of ancient apes, which are the ancestors of all primates, and in the subsequent evolution, the brothers and sisters in the extended family have embarked on different paths at different points in time, some have disappeared in the long river of history, and some still look up at the same blue sky as us.