SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PILTDOWN DISCOVERY 283 



They were no doubt exterminated eventually either by heidel- 

 bergensis or neandertalensis. The Heidelberg jaw is certainly 

 not later than the Mesvinian Age (which must be placed in the 

 first Interglacial phase), and it may be earlier ; it is thus at least 

 one glacial cycle older than the Piltdown specimen. 



The characters of the five species may therefore be tabulated 

 as below : 



Now, it used to be generally believed that neandertalensis 

 was directly ancestral to sapiens, a belief that was in no way 

 inconsistent with the sudden appearance of sapiens in Europe, 

 for the evolution from one type to the other might well have 

 taken place in another continent, whilst the Neandertalers in 

 Europe were in a stagnant condition. This theory has been 

 recently losing ground, however, and it is now more commonly 

 held that the Neandertalers represent a side branch, showing 

 some signs of what is loosely called degeneracy, and leading 

 nowhere. Woodward adopts this latter hypothesis, and de- 

 velops it further. He believes that the discovery of Eoanthropus 

 proves that the high forehead is a primitive character of the 

 Hominidae, and that the low forehead and great brow-ridges 

 of neandertalensis are therefore a secondary acquirement, and 

 he proceeds to expound the view that because the young ol 

 all the anthropoid apes have likewise a relatively high forehead, 

 therefore (on the recapitulation theory) the apes too are to be 

 regarded as descended from animals with a steep, manlike, 



1 The specimen found is that of a female, and therefore below the average for 

 the race. (Prof. Keith's estimate, recently given at the International Medical 

 Congress, is higher.) 



3 Europeans. 



