SCIENCE OF FOSSIL LIFE 341 



different collections a series containing the Neanderthal 

 skull, the skulls of Spy and Engis, and the Java skull de- 

 scribed in 1894 by Dubois. There have also been found 

 recently (November, 1906) in deposits near Lincoln, Neb., 

 some fossil human remains that occupy an intermediate 

 position between the Neanderthal skull and the skulls of the 

 lower representatives of living races of mankind. We shall 

 have occasion to revert to this question in considering the 

 evidences of organic evolution. (See page 364.) 



The name palaeontology was brought into use about 1830. 

 The science affords, in some particulars, the most interesting 

 field for biological research, and the feature of the recon- 

 struction of ancient life and the determination of the lineage 

 of living forms has taken a strong hold on the popular imag- 

 ination. According to Osborn, the most important palaeon- 

 tological event of recent times was the discovery, in 1900, of 

 fossil beds of mammals in the Fayum lake-province of Egypt, 

 about forty-seven miles south of Cairo. Here are embedded 

 fossil forms, some of which have been already described in a 

 volume by Charles W. Andrews, which Osborn says "marks 

 a turning-point in the history of mammalia of the world." 

 It is now established that " Africa was a very important center 

 in the evolution of mammalian life." It is expected that the 

 lineage of several orders of mammalia will be cleared up 

 through the further study of fossils from this district. 



