Men of the Old Stone Age

 

"Piltdown et al."

Men of the Old Stone Age 3rd ed. 1924

Henry Fairfield Osborn

 

YEAR LOCALITY CHARACTER OF REMAINS RACE
 1848 GibraltarNeantherthal, near Düsseldorf.
Well-preserved skull Neanderthal
1856 La Naulette, Belgium Skullcap, etc. Type of Neanderthal race
1866 Furfooz, Belgium Fragment of lower jaw Neanderthal race
1867 Cro-Magnon, Dordogne Spy, Belgium
Two skulls Type of Furfooz race
1868 Trinil River, Java Three skeletons and fragments of two others Type of Cro-Magnon race
1887 Krapina, Austria- Two crania and skeletons Spy type of Neanderthal
1891 Hungary Grimaldi grotto,
Skullcap and femur Spy type of Neanderthal
1899 Mentone Heildelberg

Fragments of at least ten

individuals

Krapina type of Neanderthal race
1901 Mentone Heildelberg
Two skeletons Type of Grimaldi race
1907 La Chapelle, Corrèze Lower jaw with teeth Type of Homo heidelberg-ensis
1908 La Moustier, Dordogne Skeleton Mousterian type of Neanderthal race
1908 La Ferrassie I, Dordogn Almost complete skeleton, greater part of which was in bad state of preservation
Neanderhal
1909 La Ferrassie II, Dordogne La Quina II, Charente
Fragments of skeleton Neanderthal
1910 Piltdown, Sussex Fragment of skeleton, female Neanderthal
1911 Obercassel, near Bonn, Fragments of skeleton, supposed female
Neanderthal
1911 Germany Portions of skull and jaw Type of Eoanthropus, the 'dawn man'
1914 Two skeletons, male and female Cro-Magnon

 

ANCESTRAL TREE OF THE ANTHROPOID APES AND OF MAN

 

ANCESTRAL TREE OF THE ANTHROPOID APES AND OF MAN

From the unknown and ancestral stock of the anthropoid apes and man the Gibbon was the first to branch off in Oligocene times; the Orang then branched off in a widely different direction. The stem of the Chimpanzee and of the Gorilla branched off at a more recent date and is more nearly allied to that of man. Five early human races have been found in Europe in Glacial or Pleistocene times, but no traces of other primates except the macaques, which are related to the lower division of the baboons, have been found in Europe in Pleistocene times. Modified after Gregory.

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[81]

 

Java Ape Man

Fig. 38. Profile view of the head of Pithecanthropus, the Java ape-man, after a model by J. H. McGregor. One-quarter life size.

. . . .

[92]

 

Huge Harry Asian Mammals

Fig. 43. The other and hardier pair of large African-Asiatic mammals, namely, the broad-nosed or Merck's rhinoceros (R. merckii ) and the straight-tusked or ancient elephant (E. antiquus ), which entered western Europe in Second Interglacial times and survived until Third Interglacial times, when their remains are found intermingled with flints of the Acheulean and early Mousterian cultures. These mammals were doubtless hunted by men of the early Neanderthal races. One-sixtieth life size. Drawn by Erwin S. Christman.

. . . .

[101]

 

Man Of Heidelberg

Fig. 50. Restoration of the Man of Heidelberg by the Belgian artist Mascré, under the direction of Professor A. Rutot, of Brussels. This restoration presents an advance upon the Pithecanthropus type. In our opinion the Heidelberg man was more human and less ape-like in appearance.

 

[130]

The Piltdown Race 15

The 'dawn man' is the most ancient human type in which the form of the head and size of the brain are known. Its anatomy, as well as its geologic antiquity, is therefore of profound -interest and worthy of very full consideration. We may first review the authors' narrative of this remarkable discovery and the history of opinion concerning it.

Piltdown, Sussex, lies between two branches of the Ouse, about 35 miles south and slightly to the east of Gray's Thurrock, the Chellean station of the Thames. To the east is the plateau of Kent, in which many flints of Eolithic type have been found.

 

[131]
Discovery Site of Piltdown and Dawson

Fig. 63. Discovery site of the famous Piltdown skull near Piltdown, Sussex. After Dawson. A shallow pit of dark-brown gravel at the bottom of which were found the fragments of the skull and a single primitive implement of worked flint (see Fig. 65).

The gravel layer in which the Piltdown skull occurred is situ-ated on a well-defined plateau of large area and lies about 80 feet above the level of the main stream of the Ouse. Remnants of the flint-bearing gravels and drifts occur upon the plateau and the slopes down which they trail toward the river and streams. This region was undoubtedly favorable to the flint workers of Pre-Chellean and Chellean times. Kennard 16 believes that the gravels are of the same age as those of the 'high terrace' of the lower valley of the Thames; the height above the stream level is practically the same, namely, about 80 feet. Another geologist, Clement Reid, l7 holds that the plateau, composed of Wealden chalk, through which flowed the stream bearing the Piltdown gravels, belongs to a period later than that of the maximum de[132]pression of Great Britain; that the deposits are of Pre-Glacial or early Pleistocene age; that they belong to the epoch after the cold period of the first glaciation had passed but occur at the very base of the succession of implement-bearing deposits in the southeast of England.

On the other hand, Dawson, l8 the discoverer of the Piltdown skull, in his first description states: " From these facts it appears probable that the skull and mandible cannot safely be described as being of earlier date than the first half of the Pleistocene Epoch. The individual probably lived during the warm cycle in that age."

The section of the gravel bed (Fig. 64) indicates that the remains of the Piltdown man were washed down with other fossils by a shallow stream charged with dark-brown gravel and unworked flints; some of these fossils were of Pliocene times from strata of the upper parts of the stream. In this channel were found the remains of a number of animals of the same age as the Piltdown man, a few flints resembling eoliths, and one very primitive worked flint of Pre- Chellean type, which may also have been washed down from deposits of earlier age. These precious geologic and archæologic records furnish the only means we have of determining the age of Eoanthropus, the 'dawn man,' one of the most important and significant discoveries in the whole history of anthropology. We are indebted to the geologist Charles Dawson and the paleontologist Arthur Smith Woodward for preserving these ancient records and describing them with great fulness and accuracy as follows (pp. I32 to 139):

Several years ago Dawson discovered a small portion of an unusually thick human parietal bone, taken from a gravel bed which was being dug for road-making purposes on a farm close to Piltdown Common. In the autumn of 1911 he picked up among the rain-washed spoil-heaps of the same gravel-pit another and larger piece of bone belonging to the forehead region of the same skull and including a portion of the ridge extending over the left eyebrow. Immediately impressed with the importance of this discovery, Dawson enlisted the co-operation of Smith Woodward, and a systematic search was made in these spoil [133] heaps and gravels, beginning in the spring of 1912; all the material was looked over and carefully sifted. It appears that the whole or greater part of the human skull had been scattered by the workmen, who had thrown away the pieces unnoticed.

 

Geological Representation of Piltdown gravel bed

Fig. 64. Geologic section of the Piltdown gravel bed, showing in restored outlines at the bottom of layer 3 the position in which the fragments of the skull and jaw were found. After Dawson.

1. Surface soil, with flints. Thickness = 1 foot.
2. Pale-yellow sandy loam, with gravel and flints. One Palaeolithic worked flint was found in the middle of this bed. Thickness = 2 feet, 8 inches.
3. Dark-brown gravel, with flints, Pliocene rolled fossils and Eoanthropus skull, beaver teeth, 'eoliths' and one worked flint. Thickness = 18 inches.
4. Pale-yellow clay and sand. Thickness = 8 inches.
5. Undisturbed strata of Wealden age.

Thorough search in the bottom of the gravel bed itself revealed the right half of a jaw, which was found in a depression of undisturbed, finely stratified gravel, so far as could be judged on the spot identical with that from which the first portions of the cranium were exhumed. A yard from the jaw an important piece of the occipital bone of the skull was found. Search was renewed in 1913 by Father P. Teilhard, of Chardin, a French anthropologist, who fortunately recovered a single canine tooth, and later a pair of nasal bones were found, all of which frag[134]ments are of very great significance in the restoration of the skull.

The jaw appears to have been broken at the symphysis, and somewhat abraded, perhaps after being caught in the gravel before it was completely covered with sand. The fragments of the cranium show little or no signs of stream rolling or other abrasion save an incision caused by the workman's pick.

 

Primitive flints found

Fig. 65. The single worked flint of very primitive type found in the same layer (3) with the fragments of the Piltdown skull. After Dawson. One-half actual size.

Analysis of the bones showed that the skull was in a condition of fossilization, no gelatine or organic matter remained, and mingled with a large proportion of the phosphates, originally present, was a considerable proportion of iron.*

*The original paper describing this remarkable discovery was read before the Geological Society of London, December, 1912, and published as a separate pamphlet in March, 1913. A discussion as to the geologic age by Kennard, Clement Reid, and others was held at the time of the reading of the original paper.

The dark gravel bed (Fig. 64, layer 3), 18 inches in thickness, at the bottom of which the skull and jaw were found, contained a number of fossils which manifestly were not of the same age as the skull but were certainly from Pliocene deposits up-stream; these included the water-vole and remains of the mastodon, the southern mammoth, the hippopotamus, and a fragment of the grinding-tooth of a primitive elephant, resembling Stegodon. In the spoil-heaps, from which it is believed the skull of the Piltdown man was taken, were found an upper tooth of a rhinoceros, either of the Etruscan or of Merck's type; the tooth of a beaver and of a hippopotamus, and the leg-bone of a deer, which may have been cut or incised by man. Much more distinctive was a [135] single flint (Fig. 65), worked only on one side, of the very primitive or Pre-Chellean type. Implements of this stage, as the author observes, are difficult to classify with certainty, owing to the rudeness of their workmanship; they resemble certain rude implements occasionally found on the surface of the chalk downs near Piltdown. The majority of the flints found in the gravel were worked only on one face; their form is thick, and the flaking is broad and sparing; the original surface of the flint is left in a smooth, natural condition at the point grasped by the hand; the whole implement thus has a very rude and massive form. These flints appear to be of even more primitive form than those at St. Acheul described as Pre-Chellean by Commont.

 

Eoliths found near pit

Fig. 66. Eoliths found in or near the Piltdown gravel-pit. After Dawson. One-half actual size. a. Borer (above). b. Curved scraper (below).

The eoliths found in the gravel-pit and in the adjacent fields are of the 'borer' and 'hollow-scraper' forms; also, some are of the 'crescent-shaped-scraper' type, mostly rolled and water-worn, as if transported from a distance. This is a stream or river bed, not a Palæolithic quarry.

There can be little doubt, however, that the Piltdown man belonged to a period when the flint industry was in a very primitive stage, antecedent to the true Chellean. It has subsequently been observed that the gravel strata (3) containing the Piltdown man were deeper than the higher stratum containing flints nearer the Chellean type.

The discovery of this skull aroused interest as great as or even greater than that attending the discovery of the two other 'river-drift' races, the Trinil and the Heidelberg. In this discussion the most distinguished anatomists of Great Britain, Arthur Smith Woodward, Elliot Smith, and Arthur Keith, took [136] part, and finally the original pieces were re-examined by three anatomists of this country.*

* By the author of this work, and also by Professor J. Howard McGregor of Columbia University and Doctor William K. Gregory of Columbia University and of the American Museum of Natural History.

 

African Bushman and Piltdown skull

Fig. 67. Skull of South African Bushman (upper) exhibiting the contrast in the structure of the jaw and forehead. One-quarter life size. Original restoration of the Piltdown skull (lower) made by Smith Woodward in 1913. One-quarter life size.

It is important to present in full the original opinions of Smith Woodward, who devoted most careful study to the first reconstruction of the skull (Fig. 67), a model which was subsequently modified by the actual discovery of one of the canine teeth. In his original description it is observed that the pieces of the skull preserved are noteworthy for the great thickness of the bone, it being 11 to 12 mm. as compared with 5 to 6 mm., the average thickness in the modern European skull, or 6 to 8 mm., the thickness in the skull of the Neanderthal races and in that of the modern Australian; the cephalic index is estimated at 78 or 79, that is, the skull is believed to have been proportionately low and wide, almost brachycephalic; there was apparently no prominent or thickened ridge above the orbits, a feature which immediately distinguishes this skull from that of the Neanderthal races: the several bones of the brain-case are typically human and not in the least like those of the anthropoid apes; the brain capacity was originally estimated at 1070 c.cm., not equalling that of some of the lowest brain types in the existing Australian races and de[137]cidedly below that of the Neanderthal man of Spy and La Chapelle-aux-Saints; the nasal bones are typically human but relatively small and broad, so that the nose was flattened, resembling that in some of the existing Malay and African races.

 

Three views of the Piltdown skull

Fig. 68. Three views of the Piltdown skull as reconstructed by J. H. McGregor, 1914. This restoration includes the nasal bones and canine tooth, which were not known at the time of Smith Woodward's reconstruction of 1913. One-quarter life size.

The jaw presents profoundly different characters; the whole of the bone preserved closely resembles that of a young chimpanzee; thus the slope of the bony chin as restored is between that of an adult ape and that of the Heidelberg man, with an extremely receding chin; the ascending portion of the jaw for the attachment of the temporal muscles is broad and thickened [138] anteriorly. Associated with the jaw were two elongated molar teeth, worn down by use to such an extent that the individual could not have been less than thirty years of age and was probably older. These teeth are relatively longer and narrower than: those in the modern human jaw. The canine tooth, identified by Smith Woodward as belonging in the lower jaw, strengthened by the evidence afforded by the jaw itself, proves that the face was elongate or prognathous and that the canine teeth were very prominent like those of the anthropoid apes; it affords definite proof that the front teeth of the Piltdown man resembled those of the ape.

The author's conclusion is that while the skull is essentially human, it approaches the lower races of man in certain characters of the brain, in the attachment of the muscles of the neck, in the large extent of the temporal muscles attached to the jaw, and in the probably large size of the face. The mandible, on the other hand, appears precisely like that of the ape, with nothing human except the molar teeth, and even these approach the dentition of the apes in their elongate shape and well-developed fifth or posterior intermediate cusp. This type of man, distinguished by the smooth forehead and supraorbital borders and ape-like jaw, represents a new genus called Eoanthropus, or 'dawn man,' while the species has been named dawsoni in honor of the discoverer, Charles Dawson. This very ancient type of man is defined by the ape-like chin and junction of the two halves of the jaw, by a series of parallel grinding-teeth, with narrow lower molar teeth, which do not diminish in size backward, and by the steep forehead and slight development of the brow ridges. The jaw manifestly differs from that of the Heidelberg man in its comparative slenderness and relative deepening toward the symphysis.

The discussion of this very important paper by Smith Woodward and Dawson centred about two points. First, whether the ape-like jaw really belonged with the human skull rather than with that of some anthropoid ape which happened to be drifted down in the same stratum; and second, whether the extremely [139] low original estimate of the brain capacity of 1070 c.cm., was not due to incorrect adjustment or reconstruction of the separate pieces of the skull.

Keith, l9 the leader in the criticism of Woodward's reconstruction, maintained that when the two sides of the skull were properly restored and made approximately symmetrical, the brain capacity would be found to equal 1500 c.cm.; the brain cast of the skull even as originally reconstructed was found to be close to 1200 c.cm. This author agreed that skull, jaw, and canine tooth belonged to Eoanthropus but that they could not well belong to the same individual.

In defense of Woodward's reconstruction came the powerful support of Elliot Smith. 20 He maintained that the evidence afforded by the re-examination of the bones corroborated in the main Smith Woodward's identification of the median plane of the skull; further, that the original reconstruction of the prognathous face was confirmed by the discovery of the canine tooth, also that there remained no doubt that the association of the skull, the jaw, and the canine tooth was a correct one. The back portion of the skull is decidedly asymmetrical, a condition found both in the lower and higher races of man. A slight rearrangement and widening of the bones along the median upper line of the skull raise the estimate of the brain capacity to 1100 c.cm. as the probable maximum.

Elliot Smith continued that he considered the brain to be of a more primitive kind than any human brain that he had ever seen, yet that it could be called human and that it already showed a considerable development of those parts which in modern man we associate with the power of speech; thus, there was no doubt of the unique importance of this skull as representing an entirely new type of "man in the making." As regards the form of the lower jaw, it was observed that in the dawn of human existence teeth suitable for weapons of offense and defense were retained long after the brain had attained its human status. Thus the ape-like form of the chin does not signify inability to speak, for speech must have come when the jaws were still ape-like in char[140]acter, and the bony changes that produced the recession of the tooth line and the form of the chin were mainly due to sexual selection, to the reduction m the size of the grinding-teeth, and, in a minor degree, to the growth and specialization of the muscles of the jaw and tongue employed in speech.

 

Piltdown skull with half of the right removed

Fig. 69. The Piltdown skull with the right half removed to display the extreme thickness of the bones and the shape of the brain. As restored by J. H. McGregor. One-quarter life size.

 

Left side of piltdown skull compared with chimp

Fig. 70. Outline of the left side of the Piltdown brain, compared with similar brain outlines of a chimpanzee and of a high type of modern man. One-half life size.

At first sight the brain-case resembles that of the Neanderthal skull found at Gibraltar, which is supposed to be that of a woman; it is relatively long, narrow, and especially flat, but it is smaller and presents more primitive features than those of any known human brain. Taking all these features into consideration, we must regard this as being the most primitive and most ape-like human brain so far [141] recorded; one such as might reasonably be associated with a jaw which presented such distinctive ape characters. The brain, however, is far more human than the jaw, from which we may infer that the evolution of the brain preceded that of the mandible, as well as the development of beauty of the face and the human development of the bodily characters in general.

The latest opinion of Smith Woodward* is that the brain, while the most primitive which has been discovered, had a bulk of nearly 1300 c.cm., equalling that of the smaller human brains of to- day and surpassing that of the Australians, which rarely exceeds 1250 c.cm.

 

* Guide to the Fossil Remains of Man, 1915.

The original views of Smith Woodward and of Elliot Smith regarding the relation of the Piltdown race to the Heidelberg and Neanderthal races are also of very great interest and may be cited. First, the fact that the Piltdown and Heidelberg races are almost of the same geologic age proves that at the end of the Pliocene Epoch the representatives of man in western Europe had already branched into widely divergent groups: the one (Heidelberg-Neanderthal) characterized by a very low projecting forehead, with a subhuman head of Neanderthaloid contour; the other with a flattened forehead and with an ape-like jaw of the Piltdown contour. We should not forget that in the Piltdown skull the absence of prominent ridges above the eyes may possibly be due in some degree to the fact that the type skull may belong to a female, as suggested by certain characters of the jaw but among all existing apes the skull in early life has the rounded shape of the Piltdown skull, with a high forehead and scarcely any brow ridges. It seems reasonable, therefore, to interpret the Piltdown skull as exhibiting a closer resemblance to the skulls of our human ancestors in mid-Tertiary times than any fossil skull hitherto found. If this view be accepted, we may suppose that the Piltdown type became gradually modified into the Neanderthal type by a series of changes similar to those passed through by the early apes as they evolved into typical modern apes, with their low brows and prominent ridges above the eyes. This [142] would tend to support the theory that the Neanderthal men were degenerate offshoots of the Tertiary race, of which the Piltdown skull provides the first discovered evidence -a race with a simple, flattened forehead and developed eye ridges.

 

Side view of the restoration of the Piltdown man

Fig. 7I. Restoration of the head of Piltdown man, in profile, based upon the reconstruction shown in Fig. 68, p. 137. After model by J. H. McGregor. One-quarter life size.

Elliot Smith concluded that members of the Piltdown race might well have been the direct ancestors of the existing species of man (Homo sapiens ), thus affording a direct link with undiscovered -Tertiary apes; whereas, the more recent fossil men of the Neanderthal type, with prominent brow ridges resembling those of the existing apes, may have belonged to a degenerate race which later became extinct. According to this view, Eoan-thropus represents a persistent and very slightly modified descendant of the type of Tertiary man which was the common [143] ancestor of a branch giving rise to Homo sapiens, on the one hand, and of another branch giving rise to Homo neanderthalensis on the other.

 

Front of the restoration of the Piltdown man

Fig. 72. Restoration of the head of Piltdown man, full front, after model by J. H. McGregor. One-quarter life size. (Compare Figs. 68 and 71.)

Another theory as to the relationships of Eoanthropus is that of Marcelin Boule, 21 who is inclined to regard the jaws of he Piltdown and Heidelberg races as of similar geologic age, but of dissimilar racial type. He continues: "If the skull and jaw of Piltdown belong to the same individual, and if the mandibles of the Heidelberg and Piltdown men are of the same type, this discovery is most valuable in establishing the cranial structure of the Heidelberg race. But it appears rather that we have here two types of man which lived in Chellean times, both distinguished by very low cranial characters. Of these the Piltdown race seems [144] to us the probable ancestor in the direct line of the recent species of man, Homo sapiens; while the Heidelberg race may be considered, until we have further knowledge, as a possible precursor of Homo neanderthalensis."

The latest opinion of the German anatomist Schwalbe 22 is that the proper restoration of the region of the chin in the Piltdown man might make it possible to refer this jaw to Homo sapiens, but this would merely prove that Homo sapiens already existed in early Pleistocene times. The skull of the Piltdown man, continues Schwalbe, corresponds with that of a well-developed, good-sized skull of Homo sapiens; the only unusual feature is the remarkable thickness of the bone.*

* The reconstruction (Fig. 68) of the Piltdown skull made by Professor J. H. McGregor has a cranial capacity of about 1300 c.cm. The brain (Fig. 70) is seen to be very narrow and low in the prefrontal area, the seat of the higher mental faculties. In the reconstruction the cranial region is in the main very like the second restoration by Doctor Smith Woodward, but the jaws differ in some respects. The tooth hitherto regarded as a right lower canine is now placed as the left upper canine, in accord with the conclusions of the author of this work and of Doctors Matthew and Gregory of the American Museum of Natural History.

Finally, our own opinion is that the Piltdown race is not ancestral to either the Heidelbergs or the Neanderthals. Very recently, the jaw of the Piltdown man has been restudied and referred by more than one expert to a fully adult chimpanzee. This leaves us still in doubt as to the exact geologic age and relationships of the Piltdown man (see Appendix, Note IX), whom we are still inclined to regard as a side branch of the human family as shown in the family tree on p. 491.

 

Another restoration of the Piltdown man

Pt. IV. The Piltdown man of Sussex, England. Antiquity variously estimated at 100,000 to 300,000 years. The ape-like structure of the jaw does not prevent the expression of a considerable degree of intelligence in the face. After the restoration modelled by J. H. McGregor.

 

Chilean tools

Fig. 76. Principal forms of small, late Chellean scraping, planing, and boring tools of flint, after Commont and Obermaier. One-half actual size. 1. Combination tool-small flake with a sharp point (a ), cutting edge (b ), and curved-in scraper (c ). 2. Cutting tool with protective retouch for the index finger on the upper edge (a ), and a sharp cutting edge (b ). 3. Primitive knife. 4. 'Point.' 5. Combination tool-small flake with scraper edge (b ), and two curved-in scraper edges (a and a1 ). 6. Borer. 7. Pointed scraper. 8. Knife with coarse boring point at one end. 9. Thick scraper or planing tool. 10. Curved scraper.

. . . .

[491]

 

Evolution tree

Fig. 262. Tree showing the main theoretic lines of descent of the chief Pre-Neolithic races discovered in western Europe. (The Grimaldi race is omitted on account of its aberrant character. The northern Teutonic long-heads are also omitted.) The Trinil, Heidelberg, and Neanderthal races are represented as offshoots of one great branch. The Piltdown race is represented as an independent branch of quite unknown relations to the other races. It is probable that the five or six branches of Homo sapiens discovered int he Upper Palæolithic separated from each other in Lowere Palæolithic times in Asia. Of these the Brünn race is by far the most primitive.

[512]

Note IX

The Jaw and Skull of the Piltdown Man

 

The skull and jaw fragments, as described on pages 130-144, on which were founded the new genus and species of the human race, Eoanthropus dawsoni , have aroused a wide difference of opinion among anatomists which is still (February, 1918) unsettled.

Many anatomists questioned the association of the Piltdown jaw with the Piltdown skull. Some anatomists held that the jaw is not prehuman and does not belong with the skull at all. After reconsidering the original discovery and subsequent geological and anatomical evidence, Dr. A. Smith Woodward still (letter of January 27, 1917) feels convinced that the jaw and skull fragments are prehuman and belong to a single individual of the Piltdown race. His opinion is supported by W. P. Pycraft, D. M. S. Watson, and other British anatomists who have made a very careful investigation and comparison of the original Piltdown specimens with similar bones of anthropoid apes.

On the other hand, Gerrit S. Miller, Jr., * from a careful comparative study of a cast of the Piltdown jaw with the jaws of various types of chimpanzee, still maintains that the portions of the Piltdown jaw preserved, including the upper eye-tooth, or canine, are generally identical with those of an adult chimpanzee. This new species of chimpanzee, which Miller believes to be characteristic of the European Pleistocene, he names Pan vetus . If Miller's theory be correct it would deprive the Piltdown specimen of its jaw and incline us to refer the Piltdown skull to the genus Homo rather than to the supposed more ancient genus Eoanthropus.

*Miller, Gerrit S., Jr., The Jaw of the Piltdown Man. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, November 24, 1915.

[513] Miller's theory, however, has not been strengthened by the recent researches of the British Museum above alluded to, nor by the additional excavations of Smith Woodward near the locality where the jaw was found, both of which are said to confirm the original opinion of Dawson and Smith Woodward that the jaw belongs with the skull.

 

Geological section of Ouse River

Fig. 269. Geologic section of the valley of the Ouse River at Piltdown, England, showing earlier (1,2) and present (3) river levels. The cross indicates the location of the Piltdown quarry and theoretic former level of the River Ouse which has since cut a deep valley nearly 100 ft. below its level when the Piltdown skull was deposited. Drawn by C. A. Reeds.

As to the geological age of the Piltdown race, if confirmed by future discovery, the presence in Germany near Taubach, Weimar, of teeth similar to those in the Piltdown jaw, found in Sussex, England, would tend to confirm the opinion expressed in the first edition of this work that the Piltdown race belongs to Third Interglacial times.

____________________________________________________________________________

15. Dawson, 1913.1; 1913.2; 1913.3.
16. Kennard, 1913.1.
17. Reid, 1913.1.
18. Dawson 1913.1, p. 123; 1914.1, pp. 82-86.
19. Keith, A., 1913.1; 1913.2; 1913.3; 1913.4.
20. Boule, 1913.1, pp. 245, 246.
21. Schwalbe, 1914.1, p. 603.
22. Osborn, 1910.1, pp. 404-409.

 


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