Chap. 37 



MAMMALS AND MANKIND 



771 



Prehistoric Man 



Although mankind must have appeared much earlier, its history recorded 

 by fossils and other remains begins with the "ice age" or Pleistocene Epoch 

 (Table 38.1). 



The Ice Age was a time of many changes; lands were lifted from the sea; 

 mountains were made; climates were changed; whole populations of plants 

 and animals were moved, many of them destroyed and new ones formed. Four 

 ice sheets spread over the northern lands and each time melted back. The 

 time since the last ice sheet is called post glacial or recent. According to some 

 theories of glacial origins, ice will be back again in about 50,000 years. The 

 dawning humanity shared in the changes of the Ice Age. Some were isolated 

 and subjected to special changes; others came together and interbred; many 

 must have emigrated toward the south. Human populations increased and be- 

 came diverse. They mixed and separated and mixed again as they have ever 

 since. 



The characteristics of prehistoric man have been reconstructed from the 

 usually fragmentary remains which have been discovered, chiefly in Asia and 

 Europe. New finds are still being made from time to time. At present the pre- 

 historic record of human ancestry rests mainly upon the following types all 

 extinct. 



Java Ape Man — Pithecanthropus erectus. Several bones have been found 

 in Java from earth of the Pleistocene Epoch about one million years ago (Table 

 38.1). In 1940, a skull was discovered. The Java man probably stood erect, 



t PROSNaTHISM \ 



f S12E OF \ 



Canine--. 

 '^--CHIN 



Foramen 

 Magnum—"'' 



Neck Muscle 

 attachments'' 



Fig. 37.22. Skull of gorilla showing generalized anthropoid ape characters con- 

 trasted with skull of man showing specialized ones. The prognathism, i.e., the 

 protrusion of the jaws, is strikingly greater in the ape. (Courtesy, Howells: 

 Mankind So Far. New York, Doubleday and Co., 1952. 



