Fig. 6. Skulls of 1, Pithecanthropus; 2, Neandertal man (Chapelle-aux-Saints); 3, Sixth Dynasty Egyptian; 4, Old Man of Cro-Magnon. Combined from Keith. The relatively close approximation of Neandertal man to recent man, and the full frontal development of the Cro-Magnon race, are evident.
15. Rhodesian Man
Quite recent is the discovery of an African fossil man. This occurred in 1921 at Broken Hill Bone Cave in northern Rhodesia. A nearly complete skull was found, though without lower jaw; a small piece of the upper jaw of a second individual; and several other bones, including a tibia. The remains were ninety feet deep in a cave, associated with vast quantities of mineralized animal bones. Their age however is unknown. The associated fauna is one of living species only; but this does not imply the same recency as in Europe, since the animal life of Africa has altered relatively little since well back in the Pleistocene.
Measurements of Rhodesian man have not yet been published. The available descriptions point to a small brain case with low vault in the frontal region; more extremely developed eyebrow ridges than in any living or fossil race of man, including Pithecanthropus; a large gorilla-like face, with marked prognathism and a long stretch between nose and teeth—the area covered by the upper lip; a flaring but probably fairly prominent nose; an enormous palate and dental arch—too large to accommodate even the massive Heidelberg jaw; large teeth, but without the projecting canines of the apes and of the lower jaw attributed to Piltdown man; and a forward position of the foramen magnum—the aperture by which the spinal cord enters the brain—which suggests a fully upright position. The same inference is derivable from the long, straight shin-bone.
On the whole, this seems to be a form most closely allied to Neandertal man, though differing from him in numerous respects, and especially in the more primitive type of face. It is well to remember, however, that of none of the forms anterior to Neandertal man—Pithecanthropus, Heidelberg, Piltdown—has the face been recovered. If these were known, the Rhodesian face might seem less impressively ape-like. It is also important to observe that relatively primitive and advanced features exist side by side in Rhodesian man; the face and eyebrow ridges are somewhat off-set by the prominent nose, erect posture, and long clean limb bones. It is therefore likely that this form was a collateral relative of Neandertal man rather than his ancestor or descendant. Its place in the history of the human species can probably be fixed only after the age of the bones is determined. Yet it is already clear that the discovery is important in at least three respects. It reveals the most ape-like face yet found in a human variety; it extends the record of fossil man to a new continent; and that continent is the home of the two living apes—the gorilla and chimpanzee—recognized as most similar to man.
16. The Cro-Magnon Race
The Cro-Magnon race is not only within the human species, but possibly among the ancestors of modern Europeans. While Neandertal man is still Homo Neandertalensis—the genus of living man, but a different species—the Cro-Magnon type is Homo sapiens—that is, a variety of ourselves. The age is that of the gradual, fluctuating retreat of the glaciers—the later Cave period of the Old Stone Age: the Upper Palæolithic, in technical language, comprising the Aurignacian, the Solutrean, and the Magdalenian (§ [70]). In years, this was the time from 25,000 to 10,000 B.C.
Some Important Remains of Cro-Magnon Type
| Aurignacian | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1868 | Cro-Magnon | Dordogne, France | 5 incomplete skeletons |
| 1872-74 | Grimaldi | Mentone, N.W. Italy | 12 skeletons |
| 1909 | Laugerie Haute | Dordogne, France | Skeleton |
| 1909 | Combe-Capelle | Périgord, France | Skeleton |
| Magdalenian | |||
| 1872 | Laugerie Basse | Dordogne, France | Skeleton |
| 1888 | Chancelade | Dordogne, France | Skeleton, nearly complete |
| 1914 | Obercassel | Near Bonn, Germany | 2 skeletons |