The Man who Found the Missing Link: The extraordinary life of Eugene Dubois
by Pat Shipman, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £25, ISBN 0297842900
IN 1893, Eugene Dubois announced that he had found the “missing link” near
Trinil on the island of Java. These fossil remains were, he said, from a species
intermediate between humans and (other) great apes. They would, he hoped,
confirm Charles Darwin’s description of the origin of species, and ours in
particular.
Pat Shipman’s account of Dubois’s life makes a fascinating story and is
particularly strong on the science. It is also replete with engaging detail
about how digs…
