Arun Sonakia

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Arun Sonakia († May 19, 2018 in Madhya Pradesh ) was an Indian geologist who became known for his research in the field of human tribal history . Sonakia worked for the Geological Survey of India , where he was most recently director of the paleontological department of the Geological Survey of India in Nagpur until his retirement .

Narmada Man

Arun Sonakia discovered on December 5, 1982 near the village of Hathnora in the so-called boulder conglomerate of the Narmada River, the fossilized skullcap of an early man - the first hominine fossil known to date in India. The discovery of this Narmada Man ("Narmada-Mensch") brought its discoverer international recognition.

Since Sonakia reconstructed a considerable brain volume of approx. 1280 cm³ during the first description of the fossil, he believed that the Narmada Man was a man. However, a later examination of the skullcap by Marie-Antoinette de Lumley revealed that it was probably an adult, around 27 to 32-year-old woman who, according to the uranium-238 dating of a bovine shoulder blade found in the same layer, was at least older Lived in central India for 236,000 years in the late Middle Pleistocene .

The assignment of the fossil to a specific species of the genus Homo has not yet been clarified, and there is no reliable, direct dating of the fossil. Indian researchers have repeatedly interpreted the fossil as the ancestor of anatomically modern humans ( Homo sapiens ); it was classified as an Indian variant of Homo erectus ( Homo erectus narmadensis ), assigned to Homo heidelbergensis and referred to as " Homo narmadensis ".

The paleoanthropologist Chris Stringer pointed out in 2012 that the fossil could possibly belong to the Denisova people .

Arun Sonakia died in a traffic accident in May 2018.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Human fossil founder Arun Sonakia dies in accident . In: Deccan Herald . May 20, 2018 ( deccanherald.com [accessed June 4, 2018]).
  2. ↑ Arun Sonakia: The skull-cap of early man and associated mammalian fauna from Narmada valley alluvium, Hoshangabad area, Madhya Pradesh (India) . In: Records of the Geological Survey of India . tape 113 , no. 6 , 1984, pp. 159-172 .
  3. ^ Marie-Antoinette de Lumley, Arun Sonakia: Premiere découverte d'un Homo erectus sur le continent indien á Hathnora, dans la moyenne vallée de la Narmada . In: L'Anthropologie . tape 89 , no. 1 . Paris 1985, p. 13-61 .
  4. ↑ David Cameron, Rajeev Patnaik and Ashok Sahni: The phylogenetic significance of the Middle Pleistocene Narmada hominin cranium from central India. In: International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. Volume 14, No. 6, 2004, pp. 419-447, doi: 10.1002 / oa.725
  5. ↑ Kenneth AR Kennedy, Arun Sonakia, John Chiment, KK Verma: Is the Narmada hominid an Indian Homo erectus? In: American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Volume 86, No. 4, 1991, pp. 475-496, doi: 10.1002 / ajpa.1330860404
  6. Jump up ↑ Arun Sonakia and Henry de Lumley : Narmada Homo erectus - A possible ancestor of the modern Indian. In: Comptes Rendus Palevo. Volume 5, No. 1-2, 2006, pp. 353-357, doi: 10.1016 / j.crpv.2005.10.002
  7. ↑ Homo Erectus Narmadensis, Early Man - (The Oldest Early Man Of India). On: museum.gsi.gov.in , accessed June 5, 2018
  8. ↑ Anek R. Sankhyan: The Emergence of Homo sapiens in South Asia: The Central Narmada Valley as Witness. In: Human Biology Review. Volume 2, No. 2, 2013, pp. 136–152, full text (PDF)
  9. ↑ Chris Stringer : The status of Homo heidelbergensis (Schoetensack 1908). In: Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews. Volume 21, No. 3, 2012, pp. 101-107, doi: 10.1002 / evan.21311
personal data
SURNAME Sonakia, Arun
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian geologist
DATE OF BIRTH 20th century
DATE OF DEATH 19th May 2018
Place of death Madhya Pradesh