The discoveries are commonly designated by the name of the locality in which they were made. Those selected for particular mention are enumerated in the list on p. 20.
Taubach in Saxe-Weimar.
Certain specimens discovered at Taubach and first described in 1895 possess an importance second only to that of the Mauer jaw and of the Javan bones found by Professor Dubois. Indeed there would be justification for associating the three localities in the present series of descriptions. But upon consideration, it was decided to bring the Taubach finds into the present place and group. It may be added that they are assigned to an epoch not very different from that represented by the Mauer strata whence the mandible was obtained.
Fig. 3. The grinding surface of the first right lower molar tooth from Taubach. The letters denote several small prominences called cusps.
Fig. 4. The grinding surface of the corresponding tooth (cf. Fig. 3) of a Chimpanzee. (Figs. 3, 4, 5, and 6 are much enlarged.)
The actual material consists only of two human teeth of the molar series. One is the first lower ‘milk’ molar of the left side. This tooth exceeds most corresponding modern examples in its dimensions. In a large collection of modern teeth from Berlin no example provided dimensions so large. The surface is more worn than is usual in modern milk teeth of this kind. The second tooth (Fig. 3) is the first lower ‘permanent’ molar of the left side. It bears five cusps. Neither this number of cusps, nor its absolute dimensions, confer distinction upon the tooth. Its chief claim to notice is based upon its relative narrowness from side to side. That narrowness (proportion of transverse to anteroposterior diameter), represented by the ratio 84.6:100, is present in a distinctly unusual and almost simian degree. In this character the Taubach tooth resembles the same tooth of the Chimpanzee (Fig. 4), to which it stands nearer than does the corresponding tooth of the Mauer jaw. The manner in which the worn surface of the tooth slopes downwards and forwards has been claimed as another simian character. In these respects, the Taubach tooth is among the most ape-like of human teeth (whether prehistoric or recent) as yet recorded, and in my opinion there is some difficulty in deciding whether this is the tooth of a human being or of a pithecoid human precursor. There is a very slight tendency (Figs. 5, 6) to concrescence of the roots, and these are curiously parallel in direction, when viewed from the side. In the latter respect no similarity to the teeth of apes can be recognised.
