GENUS DRYOPITHECUS.
Dryopithecus, Lartet, C. R., xliii., p. 221 (1856); id., Mem. Soc. Geol., Palæon., i., p. 1, pl. 1 (1890); Gaudrey, C. R. Cx., p. 373 (1890); Zittel, Handb. Palæont., iv., p. 709 (1893).
This genus is based on remains from the Mid-Miocene of St. Gaudens (Haute Garonne), which indicate the former existence of an Ape more Man-like than any other. In size it approached the dimensions of the Chimpanzee; the incisors are smaller—an elevated character—and shorter than those in the Gorilla or the Chimpanzee. The canines are, as in the Gorilla, thick, sharp behind, and taller than the cheek-teeth; the anterior pre-molar is large, as in the Gorilla, has one root, and a strong cingulum on the inner side; the posterior pre-molar is longer than broad, is two-cusped, and has a flattened talon. The molar teeth have two pairs of opposite cusps, and a fifth on the hind border, which develops, on the hindmost tooth, into a two-cusped talon. The line of union of the lower jaw is high, projects obliquely forward, and is longer and narrower than in Man. The late appearance of the last molar in the upper jaw was supposed to be a character which was alone common to Dryopithecus and Man; but Dr. Forsyth Major has observed that in Macacus the same late in-coming of the "wisdom tooth" occurs. The type species, Dryopithecus fontani, Lartet, which lived in the Mid-Miocene forests of St. Gaudens, though the most Man-like of all the Tertiary Apes, was nevertheless further distant from Man than the Chimpanzees (Anthropopithecus). The form of the symphysis of its lower jaw indicates that its snout was considerably lengthened. Certain molar teeth found in the Bohnerz strata from Melchingen and Salmendingen, in Würtemberg, and at one time considered to be human, have now been ascribed to D. fontani.
GENUS SIMIA (suprà, p. [170]).
To this genus has been referred a molar tooth found in the Pliocene Strata of the Sivalik hills in India. It is considered to belong to an Orang-Utan, Simia satyrus.
GENUS ANTHROPOPITHECUS (suprà, p. [188]).
A fragmentary jaw, also from the Pliocene beds in the Sivalik hills, has been described as Anthropopithecus sivalensis by Lydekker, who at first placed it in a new genus, Palæopithecus, but has more recently determined it to belong really to this now exclusively African genus. The relative smallness of the premolars distinguish it from the Orang. Should this determination be confirmed, the presence of a true Chimpanzee in Asia will be a fact of the highest interest in the geographical distribution of the Simiidæ.
FAMILY HOMINIDÆ (suprà, p. [203]).
GENUS HOMO (suprà, p. [203]).
Although, as has been stated above, the Primates, represented by lowly Lemuroids evincing relationship with the ancestors of the hoofed animals (Ungulata), first appeared in Eocene times, it would be a hopeless quest, as Professor Boyd-Dawkins points out, to seek for a highly specialised Man in a fauna where no living genus of Mammals was present.