432 ANIMAL BIOLOGY 



traced with some assurance from the actual fossil remains of pre- 

 historic man and the relics of his handiwork. 



When one realizes how slight are the chances for the remains of 

 prehistoric man to become fossilized and, if preserved, to be un- 

 earthed to-day, it seems remarkable that the record is no more 

 fragmentary than it actually is, especially when the short time 

 that interest has centered in the problem is considered. Some of 

 the important fossil forms are of the greatest significance, though 

 experts are by no means unanimous in regard to the interpretation 



of details. At present it is prema- 

 ture to attempt to reach a decision 

 in regard to the specific Early 

 Pleistocene ancestor of modern 

 man, but there is reasonable as- 

 surance that the problem will 

 eventually be solved. At all 

 events the emergence of man is 

 essentially a Pleistocene story. 

 Some representative 'fossil men' 

 may be reviewed. (Page 359.) 



Fig. 276. - Skull and face of the L The Jam Man 



Java Man, Pithecanthropus erectus. In deposits of the Middle Pleis- 

 Portion below irregular line restored. „ T , , , 



(From Lull, adapted from McGregor.) tocene of Java there have been 



discovered during the past cen- 

 tury various skeletal fragments which possess many of the attri- 

 butes of ' missing links.' The bones found probably represent several 

 species. The first discovered and the most famous consist of a skull- 

 cap, femur, and three teeth. With these fragments as a guide, ex- 

 perts have attempted to restore the chief features of this so-called 

 Java man, Pithecanthropus erectus. (Fig. 276.) 



The face of Pithecanthropus shows immense beetling brows. 

 The skull viewed from above is essentially human although the 

 brain itself has deficiencies in the parietal and prefrontal regions, 

 the latter in particular being the seat of the higher mental faculties. 

 The motor and auditory speech centers are significantly developed 

 so it seems probable that Pithecanthropus had at least the rudi- 

 ments of articulate speech which differentiated him from the apes. 

 The volume of the brain, estimated at about 940 cc, is small com- 

 pared with that of modern man, though barely within the range of 



