SCIENCE PROGRESS 



VERTEBRATE PALAEONTOLOGY IN 1912 



By R. LYDEKKER, F.R.S. 



By far the most striking event of the year, so far as verte- 

 brate palaeontology is concerned, is the discovery by 

 Mr. Charles Dawson, in a shallow bed of high-level gravel 

 at Piltdown, in the parish of Fletching, Sussex, of portions of 

 a cranium and lower jaw which indicate a being inter- 

 mediate in many respects between man and the man-like apes. 

 In describing these specimens at the meeting of the Geological 

 Society held on December 18, 191 2 {Abstracts Proc. Geol. Soc. 

 No. 932, Dec. 28, 1912), Dr. A. Smith Woodward referred to 

 these remains as " human " ; but as they are regarded as repre- 

 senting a distinct generic type, it may be a question whether 

 they have any right to that title ; it is perhaps better to refer 

 to them as man-like. 



Mr. Dawson states that the skull was broken up by the 

 workmen who found it and most of the fragments thrown 

 away. On the other hand, Sir E. R. Lankester, in an article 

 in the Daily Telegraph of December 19, 19 12, asserts that it was 

 broken when discovered and that the fractured parts had been 

 slightly worn before entombment in the gravel. The lower 

 jaw was dug up by Mr. Dawson in an undisturbed patch of 

 gravel a short distance away from the spot where the skull 

 was found. Although certain doubts were expressed at the 

 meeting whether the skull and lower jaw belonged to the 

 same individual, there can be no hesitation in regarding them 

 as associated and there are some reasons for believing them to 

 pertain to a female. 



The gravel, which lies at a height of 80 ft. above the 



Ouse, also yielded more or less imperfect teeth of an elephant, 



a mastodon, a horse, a hippopotamus and a beaver, as well as 



a fragment of the antler of a red deer and Palaeolithic imple- 



1 



