HUMAN EVOLUTION 



was possible on the basis of the fragmentary upper and lower 

 jaws recovered in the last century. In the meantime, I must 

 report that the phylogenetic placement of this most interesting 

 hominoid is uncertain. 



3. Australopithecus 



These hominids of the Lower Pleistocene are especially note- 

 worthy for our purposes because they (a) had upright, or at 

 least, nearly upright, posture and moved on their two hind feet; 

 and (b) because they exhibit the earliest evidence of tool man- 

 ufacture by primates. These now fully authenticated locomotor 

 and manipulatory activities are all the more interesting because 

 the australopithecines had brains only one-third the volume of 

 that of modern man. 



These South African near-men are known from hundreds 

 of excellent fossil specimens from four sites in the Transvaal 

 and one site in Bechuanaland. There is no reasonable doubt 

 that the australopithecines are hominids and not pongids. They 

 do not look exactly like modern man, but there is no reason 

 to expect that they should. 



The geographical distribution of Australopithecus includes 

 East as well as South Africa and perhaps extends to southeast- 

 ern Asia. A jaw fragment from near Lake Eyasi in northern 

 Tanganyika is of Australopithecus type, and the mandibular 

 fragments called Meganthropus from the Lower Pleistocene of 

 Java are placed in the australopithecine group by some au- 

 thorities. 



The newest member of this group was discovered on July 17, 

 1959, by Mary and Louis Leakey They recovered a skull and 

 shinbone of a young adult male in the Lower Pleistocene beds 

 of Olduvai Gorge in Tanganyika. These fossils, called Zin- 

 janthropus by Dr. Leakey (1959) are of the general austra- 

 lopithecine sort. 



4. Pithecanthropus 



From the neck down, the members of the genus Pithe- 

 canthropus were very like ourselves, and like us, they were 

 tool makers, fire users, and meat eaters. From the neck up, they 



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