Men of the Old Stone Age: Their Environment, Life and Art

by Henry Fairfield Osborn

Fig. 122. Thigh-bones, or femora, of the Trinil, Neanderthal, and Crô-Magnon races, compared with one of modern type. The Neanderthal femur seems to be short and stout, whereas that attributed to Pithecanthropus is relatively long, slender, and straight. Of the femora illustrated the Neanderthal and Trinil are those of the type specimens, the Crô-Magnon is from the skeletal fragments of La Madeleine. After Dubois, Boule, Lartet, and Christy. One-eighth life size.

The structure of the hand is a matter of the highest interest in connection with the implement-making powers of the Neanderthals. The hand is remarkably large and robust, comparable in size with that of men of very large stature in existing races. With respect to the opposition power of the thumb against the fingers by means of the opponens muscle, a distinctively human characteristic, the stage of Neanderthal development is decidedly lower than that of existing races, because the joint of the metacarpal bone which supports the thumb is of a peculiar form, convex, and presenting a veritable convex condyle, whereas in the existing human races the articular surface of the upper part of the thumb joint is saddle-shaped, that is, concave from within backward, and convex from without inward. Thus the highly perfected motions of the thumb in Homo sapiens were not attained in Homo neanderthalensis. Two phalanges which are preserved in the Chapelle-aux-Saints skeleton show that the fingers were relatively short and robust.

In the structure of the hip-girdle our fossil man is altogether human; nevertheless, some of its characters are very primitive and distinctive.

Similarly, the thigh-bone shows several primitive characters which are only rarely seen in existing races, such as the third trochanter and the strong, general forward curvature.

The structure of the knee-joint in relation to the shin-bone is very peculiar, because it shows that the shin was always retroverted or bent backward. Two other features of the shin-bone are its extreme abbreviation as compared with the femur, and the absence of flattening, or platycnemism. Where the shin-bone joins the ankle-bone (astragalus) are shown two facets, such as are preserved only in those races of existing men which have retained the habit of squatting or the folded position of the limbs; these facets are not found in races which have the habit of sitting. They indicate that the resting position of the Neanderthals while engaged in industrial work was squatting, as shown in our restoration of one of the Neanderthals at Le Moustier.

Associated with these powerful and peculiarly shaped limbs is the particularly short and thick-set vertebral column, each bone of which is remarkable for its abbreviation. The neck especially is entirely different in construction from that of existing races of men. It would appear that the concave curvature of the back in the Neanderthals was carried directly upward and continued into the concave curvature of the neck, as among the anthropoid apes, and especially in the chimpanzee. The vertebræ of the neck, especially the fifth, sixth, and seventh, and the first dorsal, resemble those of the chimpanzee far more closely than those of the modern European; the spinous processes are directed backward instead of downward. This caused the habitual stooping of Neanderthal man at the neck and shoulders and prevented him from ever holding his head entirely erect. Whereas in the back-bone of existing races the erect position is maintained by four graceful curvatures, two toward the front, and two toward the back, in the Neanderthals, as in the newly-born members of the higher races, we observe only three curvatures, two concave toward the front, namely, the back and neck curvature, just described, and a sacral or pelvic curvature; there is also a convex lumbar curvature in the lower part of the Neanderthal back-bone, which, however, is less pronounced than in existing species of man.

Fig. 123. Restoration of the head of the Neanderthal man of La Chapelle-aux-Saints, in profile, after model by J. H. McGregor. One-quarter life size.

Summing up the characters of the back-bone in the Neanderthals, certain of them are very primitive, such as the structure of the vertebræ of the neck and the robust development of the spinous processes, the absence of marked curvature in the lower part of the back-bone and the very gentle curvature of the bones of the sacrum.