"(2) The recent African Cercopithecidæ are not invaders from the North-East, as has been supposed; on the contrary, most, if not all, of the Tertiary monkeys of Europe and Asia are derived from the Ethiopian region. The home of a part at least of the Anthropoidea seems to have been in the Southern Hemisphere. This assumption is corroborated by the two facts—that Anthropoidea make their appearance for the first time in the later Tertiary of Europe and Asia, and that they are entirely absent from the Tertiary of North America."
After the first paragraph on page [219], the discoveries of Dr. Eugene Dubois, made since these pages were written, necessitate the insertion of the following paragraphs.
In the year 1892 this distinguished geologist made one of the most important contributions to our knowledge of the antiquity of man. In that year he disinterred a large number of vertebrate remains from beds—determined to be of late Pliocene, if not of Miocene age—"of cemented volcanic tuff, consisting of clay, sand, and consolidated lapilli," at Trinil on the slope of the Kendeng Hills in Java. Among these remains were a portion of a cranium, two molar teeth, and a femur, presenting mixed simian and human characters. The dimensions of the skull-cap showed that the internal capacity of the cranium was about 1,000 cubic centimetres, while the largest skulls of the Simiidæ averaged only about 500 centimetres. With the exception of this large capacity, the calvarium presented few characters which were not strongly simian, and of all the apes it most resembled the Gibbons' (Hylobates); but it was far superior in its cranial arch—low and depressed as the arch was—to that of any ape. The frontal region was narrow and the supraciliary ridges prominent. The neck area of the occipital bone was also ape-like in form. The thigh-bone (femur), on the other hand, presented human characters in a very marked degree, and gave no indication that the individual who owned it was in the habit of sitting on his hams. The molar teeth were likewise more human than ape-like, although they presented many strong simian characters. Dr. Dubois has assigned these remarkable fossils to a species which he has named Pithecanthropus erectus (the Erect Ape-man), as he believes that their owner occupied a place in the genealogical tree below the point of devarication of the anthropoid apes from the human line. Dr. Cunningham, of Dublin, however, who is one of our most eminent anatomists and anthropologists, would place it "on the human line, a short distance above the point at which the anthropoid branch is given off"; for he could "not believe that an ape-form with a cranial capacity of 1,000 centimetres could be the progenitor of the man-like apes, the largest of which had a capacity of only 500. Such a supposition would necessarily involve the assumption that the anthropoid apes were a degenerated branch from the common stem." Altogether, then, a study of these important remains tends to show that Pithecanthropus had the lowest human cranium known, and was the most ape-like ancestor of the human race yet described. He was very nearly as much below the Neanderthal man as he was below the normal European. It should be stated that some doubt has been expressed whether all the remains belong to one and the same species of animal. Dr. Dubois' arguments for their really belonging to the same individual appear, however, very convincing.
On page [223], after the close of the first paragraph, insert:—
In the Palæolithic Terrace-Gravels at Galley Hill, in Kent, in strata in which numerous palæolithic implements have been found, one of the most interesting discoveries of the ancient inhabitants of England was made in 1895. In these strata was discovered a human skull with a lower jaw, and parts of the limb bones. The skull is very long and narrow; its breadth index being above 64, and its height index 67. The supraciliary ridges were large and the glabella prominent, with the forehead receding and the occiput flattened below, while the hindmost molar was larger than the first. The skull showed numerous points of resemblance to the Neanderthal and Spy crania; as well as presenting affinities with the skulls of the early Neolithic race. The limb bones gave indication that the individual was short of stature, standing slightly over five feet. The evidence that these remains were embedded naturally in the Pleistocene age in the apparently undisturbed gravels in which they were found, and not interred at a much later period, was very strong.
| ANTHROPOIDEA | PLATE XLVIII. |
VII. MAP, Showing the distribution of the Genera Semnopithecus (Blue), Nasalis (Brown), and Colobus (Red).
| ANTHROPOIDEA | PLATE XLIX. |
