THE EVOLUTION OF MAN 199 



Pithecanthropus has been called the Trinil race and the Java 

 ape-man. He is looked upon generally as more than ape, and yet 

 less than man, so the latter term is apt. 



The skull cap is fortunately complete enough to give an expert 

 anthropologist data for the reconstruction of the cranium, while 

 the teeth are indicative of additional characters of the jaws 

 (Fig. 1 14) . The cranial capacity was about two-thirds that of man, 

 the forehead low, and the l)row ridges prominent. The centers of 

 touch, taste and vision were well developed in the brain, according 

 to Osborn, and the "central area of the brain, which is the store- 

 house of memories of actions 

 and of the feelings associ- 

 ated with them . . . but 

 the prefrontal area, which 

 is the seat of the faculty of 

 profiting by experience or 

 of recalling the conse- 

 quences of previous re- 

 sponses to experience, is 

 developed to a very limited 



degree." The known teeth fjo. 114.— Skull of the Java ape-man, 

 are larger than human teeth, Pithecanthropus erectus, restored. (From 

 and differ in some particu- L^"' ™«dified after Dubois.) 

 lars, but are manhke. The femur is not very different from that 

 of man, indicating, if the bones belong together, that the owner 

 of the skull cap was erect, and consequently that he had free use 

 of his arms. 



From the many discussions of the standing of Pithecanthropus 

 in relation to man we may conclude that the species is undoubtedly 

 a transitional form representing a very early stage in the evolu- 

 tion of the human beings of today. It is uncertain whether it is 

 in the direct line of human descent or shghtly removed from that 

 line, but in either case it has many characters of our prehuman 

 ancestors (Fig. 115A). 



A more recent discovery of prehuman remains was made in 1925 

 in Bechuanaland, South Africa, by Professor Raymond Dart. 

 This consisted of a brain cast bearing the bones of the face and 

 part of the skull of a child of six years. The complete association 

 of parts indicates that the creature was a transition form perhaps 

 even more important than Pithecanthropus. Wilder gives a brief 



