62 evolution: the ages and tomorrow 



famous Java man {Fithecanthropiis erectzis, walking-erect 

 ape-man). Many years later Koenigswald added to the Du- 

 bois find several other fossils of the same form. It is now 

 agreed that the Java man is the earliest and most primitive 

 of all human fossils yet found, dating about 500,000 years 

 ago. Java man was indeed primitive; he may not have 

 known the use of fire; did not use fashioned weapons; prob- 

 ably did not use even the most primitive of languages; had 

 a cranial capacity and a low vaulted skull distinctly less than 

 in modern man. 



From caves near Peiping, China, comes another group 

 originally called Sinanthropiis by the discoverer, Davidson 

 Black, but now classified in the same genus as Java man. This 

 Chinese find, dating some 450,000 years ago, is very rich- 

 bones from 40 different individuals, almost head to toe 

 coverage. A chinless species like Java man, the Chinese form 

 is slightly more advanced than his cousin from Java. We 

 know definitely that this primitive man used fire, seemingly, 

 according to the records, for the purpose of cooking the 

 long bones and heads of his fellows. This is the first clear 

 record of the use of the source of power with which our 

 modem civilization was built. The day is now dawning 

 when the source of power will be nuclear fission, not fire; 

 and, for whatever it may indicate, it may be remarked that 

 the first use of the new power was to cook hundreds of 

 thousands of our fellows at Nagasaki and Hiroshima. 



Many other human fossils are listed in the literature: 

 Heidelburg man from Europe, of an age nearly comparable 

 to Java and China man; the Swanscombe skull from Eng- 

 land, at least 250,000 years old; the Steinheim and Galley 

 Hill skulls from Germany, both unusual and about 100,000 

 years old; and finally Neanderthal man. Remains of Nean- 

 derthal man {Homo neanderthalensis) have been found in 

 Europe, Asia, and Africa. As a type he was only a half-step 

 below modern man, a thick-skulled, chinless, massive jawed, 

 huge-handed savage, with heavy brow ridges, a large, flat- 



