Johann Carl Fuhlrott

Johann Carl Fuhlrott (31 December 1803, Leinefelde, Germany – 17 October 1877, Elberfeld, now part of Wuppertal) was an early German paleoanthropologist. He is famous for recognising the significance of the bones of Neanderthal 1, a Neanderthal specimen discovered by German laborers who were digging for limestone in Feldhofer grotto, later known as Neander valley (Neanderthal in German) in August 1856. Originally disregarded, Fuhlrott, to his eternal credit, had the insight to recognise them for what they were: the remains of a previously unknown type of human.

In 1856, workers in a lime quarry in the nearby canyon called Gesteins or Neandertal (southwest of Mettmann) 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. Together they announced the discovery publicly in 1857.

In 1858, he wrote a book "Vogelfauna des Wupperthals" (Bird Fauna of the Wupper Valley) that wasc ompiled from the collections of Dr. Hopff and Dr. Louis von Guerard.

In 1860, Fuhlrott guided British geologist Charles Lyell to the Feldhofer cave site and Lyell was able to estimate the age of the geology of the cave despite much quarrying but determining that the skull and geology likely representative a primitive state of history.