S66 



The Earth and Its Inhabitants Change unit x 



at 1 1.42, at eighteen minutes before mid- 

 night. And our written history, which 

 :;eems so long and full in the history 

 books, is all crowded into the last three 

 to four minutes. As you read of other 

 fossil types examine Figure 514 again to 

 see at what time on this clock they made 

 their appearance. 



A glance at early forms. Fossils show 

 that a manlike form referred to as the 

 Java ape man lived between half a mil- 

 lion and a million years ago in Java, at a 

 time when the island was still connected 

 with Asia. His name. Pithecanthropus 

 (pith-e-can-throw'pus) erectj/s, indicates 

 that these men are not classified in the 

 genus Homo. They stood about five and 

 a half feet high; we believe that they 

 walked erect. The skull shows that the 

 brain was small but was much larger 

 than that of any ape. The first skull 

 bones that were found caused much dis- 

 cussion. A few experts even doubted that 

 the bones were the remains of a manlike 

 creature. But, since the discovery of four 

 more similar skulls, there is no longer 

 any doubt about the existence of Java 

 ape men. No tools of any kind were 

 found with the bones so that we can 

 only guess at the culture of these men. 

 Figure 5 1 5 shows you the flattened fore- 

 head and the large ridge over the eyes. 

 It is believed that he had no chin and 

 had large heavy jaws. 



Another early man has been named 

 Peking man, Sinmithropiis (sin-an- 

 throw'pus) pekine7isis. Many remains, 

 including bones from at least forty indi- 

 viduals, have been taken out of caves 

 near Peiping (Peking), China. Study of 

 the bones indicates that Peking men 

 walked erect and wer? .similar in many 



Homo sapiens 



First manlike forms 



Fig. 514 If the first ?f?a?7like f on/is appeared at 

 12 noon on the clock, 1,000,000 years ago, when 

 did Homo sapiens arrive? 



ways to Java men; but they had a some- 

 \\ hat larger brain. We date Peking men 

 at about half a million years ago. On our 

 clock it would show as six o'clock. It is 

 probable that Peking and Java men were 

 related, but there is no reason to believe 

 that Peking men were direct descend- 

 ants of Java men. 



The culture of Peking men was sur- 

 prisingly advanced. Associated with the 

 bones that have been found deep in the 

 floors of the caves are heavy stone tools 

 and smaller scraping tools which are 

 crude but which are undoubtedly tools 

 of a sort. There is some evidence that 

 Peking men knew the use of fire. They 

 seem to have been right-handed, and 

 judging from the development of that 

 lobe of the brain which is used in speech 

 it is believed that probably they were 

 able to talk. 



(Optional) Fossils that are difficult to 

 place. We have evidence of other pre- 

 historic men about whom little is known 

 and whose age cannot be stated with any 

 degree of certainty. There must be 

 more study of unearthed bones before 

 we can be sure of the facts. But scientists 



