REVORDki OF MEET IN (J 8 349 



Conference on the Piltdown Skull and the Origin of Man 



Henry Fairfield Osborn, (Jkological Age and Succession of Early 



Human Types. 



J. Leon Williams, Ox the Piltdown and other Prehistoric 



Skulls. 



R. Broom, C'liriK^rK oi- Keith's and Smith Wood- 



ward's Eestorations of the Piltdown 

 Skull. 



William K. Gregory, Tin; r)AsE of the Cranium in Anthropoids 



AND Man. 



Summary of Papers 



The substance of Professor Osborn's paper will appear in Volume 

 XXVI of the "Annals." 



Dr. Williams gave a careful statement of the essential facts regarding 

 the discovery of the Piltdown remains and the principal points of the 

 reconstructions attempted by Drs. Keith and Smith Woodward. 



Professor Broom defended Smith Woodward's reconstruction, which he 

 held to be far better than Professor Keith's. 



Dr. Gregory s]ioke in snl)stance as follows : 



Some years ago a work by the Dutch anatomist Van Kami)en directed 

 my attention to the importance of the detailed characters of the base of 

 the brain-case as indicating the relationships of various groups of mam- 

 mals. The special characteristics of the bony portions of the organs of 

 hearing are highly significant, in revealing descent from common an- 

 cestors among widely different animals. I therefore propose to pass 

 rapidly in review before you the basal view of the skull in many families 

 of Primiates and to point out the significance of the resemblances and 

 dilferences in the auditory region. 



LemiiricUe. In this family the auditory bulla or bony resonating cham- 

 ber of the middle ear is swollen up in a more or less hemispherical or 

 ovoid form. It completely incloses and hides from view the delicate ring 

 of bone upon which the tympanic membrane is stretched and which is 

 known as the tympanic annulus or tympanic bone. The existing lemurs 

 have evolved into widely diverse forms : here we have a more or less in- 

 sectivorous form, and here a large sloth-like, leaf -eating form, and yet 

 the formation of the auditory region is essentially identical in all. This 

 formation is one of the characteristics which these now very diverse 

 lemurs have probably inherited in common from remote and extinct 

 ;iii(('stors, such as have been found in the Eocene formations of Wvoming. 



