PREHISTORIC MAN 



495 



different species and genera, anthropologists are now inclined to place 

 them in the genus Homo and treat them as subspecies of a single species. 1 

 Both possess many apelike characteristics. 



Java man stood about 5 feet 6 inches in height. He was of stocky build, 

 and though he stood erect, he was bull-necked, with outthrust head. The 

 spine was attached rather far back on the skull, which was long and 



Fig. 30.5. Skulls of old and new type men compared with that of the gorilla. A, gorilla. B. 

 Java man, Pithecanthropus. C, Peking man, Sinanthropus. D, modern man, Homo sapiens, 

 {Redrawn from Howells, Mankind So Far, by permission Doubleday & Company, Inc.) 



narrow, very thick-boned, very low-vaulted, and had a brain cavity only 

 two-thirds as large as ours (Fig. 30. 5B). There was a tremendous un- 

 divided brow ridge continuous with the low, receding forehead. The jaws 

 were big, massive, and protruding, with large teeth. The upper canines 



1 Java man was named Pithecanthropus erectus by Dubois ; Peking man, Sinanthropus 

 pekinensis by Davidson Black. Weidenreich and others would call them respectively 

 Homo erectus erectus and Homo erectus pekinensis. In the naming of fossil men, anthro- 

 pologists often used to magnify differences and to erect genera for what would be 

 considered species or subspecies in other branches of zoology. 



