486 THE CHANGING GENERATIONS 



appearance, with heavy jaws, protruding muzzles, and low-vaulted 

 skulls. Their brains, however, were relatively large and more human than 

 anthropoid in type, and the teeth were very similar to those of man, with 

 the canines reduced and the molars of human type, though the tooth arch 

 was still U-shaped. There is evidence that these man-apes walked erect 

 on their legs, and used their hands for the manipulation of simple weapons 

 and implements. They were ground dwellers that lived among the rocks 

 and on the plains and sought shelter in caves. 



The first to be discovered, the Taungs man-ape, 1 was described by Dart 

 in 1925, from a single immature skull, and for years thereafter was the 

 subject of controversy. In 1948, Dart found more abundant material of a 

 related form, called Prometheus,' 2 which not only verified his earlier con- 

 clusions regarding the Taungs skull but also furnished much new informa- 

 tion as to the structure and habits of these man-apes. Prometheus was a 

 small creature only about 3 feet tall. The structure of the pelvis shows 

 that he walked erect ; for so small a being he had a large brain, the cranial 

 capacity being 480 cc, or about the size of the brain of a small gorilla and 

 a little less than half that of the smallest human brains. He was a cave 

 dweller and a hunter; his fossil remains are mingled with those of his 

 prey, among which are pig and antelope bones which had been split open 

 to obtain the marrow. This implies that Prometheus had hands capable 

 of holding stones for pounding and use as weapons. Dart believes 

 that he knew the use of fire (whence his name), for some of the split 

 bones are charred; but this might have been the result of accidental 

 ground fires. 



Meanwhile Broom had found the remains of two much larger man-apes, 

 those of Sterkfontein (Fig. 29.15C) and Kromdraai (Fig. 29.16), which 

 had skulls comparable in size to that of man, though the brain size is 

 intermediate between that of gorilla and the primitive Java Man pres- 

 ently to be described. In these two man-apes the cheek bone, jaw hinge, 

 and dentition approach those of man. The tooth row is still U-shaped but 

 makes a slightly broader arch than in modern apes; the canine teeth are 

 not much larger than the others and are very human in shape; the molars, 

 though very large, are of human type. The foramen magnum of the skull 

 is also set farther underneath than in the gorilla and chimpanzee, showing 

 that like Prometheus these man-apes had a fairly erect posture. To these 

 was added, in 1949, a related but much larger form, the Swartkrans man- 

 ape, 3 of which three skulls and a complete jaw were found. From the 

 size of the teeth and massiveness of the skull it is evident that this creature 



1 Australopithecus africanus. 



2 Australopithecus prometheus. 



3 The technical names of these man-apes are: Sterkfontein, Pleisanthropus trans- 

 vaalensis; Kromdraai, Paranthropus robustus; Swartkrans, Paranthropus crassidens. 



