EVOLUTION OF MAN 



233 



others (e.g., Le Gros Clark, 1955 ). The controversy as to whether they are 

 apes or men is in itself interesting. Suppose that remains of an actual 

 "missing link" between apes and man were to be discovered: we may be 

 sure that it would be so like an ape in some respects that some investigators 

 would classify it as such, and so like man in other respects that other in- 

 vestigators would classify it as human. Here are the australopithecines in 

 the midst of just such a controversy! Because, as we shall see, the char- 



FIG. 11.8. The right pelvic bones of: A, Australo- 

 pithecus; B, chimpanzee; C, Homo sapiens (Bush- 

 man). (After Broom and Robinson, "Further evidence 

 of the structure of the Sterkfontein ape-man Plesian- 

 tbropus," Transvaal Museum, MEMOIR 4, p. 60.) 



acteristics they share with Homo sapiens are so fundamental and sig- 

 nificant we shall consider them as primitive hominids. 



The australopithecines (sometimes called "South African ape-men or 

 man-apes") were of small stature, averaging in the neighborhood of 4 feet 

 tall. One point of great significance about them was the fact that they 

 walked nearly or completely upright. The vertebral column had a distinct 

 lumbar curve. As shown in Fig. 11.8, the pelvic girdle was strikingly like 

 that of Homo sapiens, with its broadly expanded ilium, and unlike that of 

 apes. Four specimens of the pelvis are known; they all agree in indicating 

 that their owners had upright posture, although this was perhaps not as 

 perfected as that of modern man (Le Gros Clark, 1959) . The position of the 

 foramen magnum well forward under the base of the skull is also indicative 

 of upright posture. 



