494 ESSENTIALS OF ZOOLOGY 



from the preceding by a continued adaptation to the changing con- 

 ditions of life. The horse's pedigree is essentially similar to that 

 of numerous other forms, such as the elephant, camel, and certain 

 birds, which have been worked out. 



The Rise of Man.- — The human group constitutes one of the groups 

 of the class Mmnmalia along with many of the common larger ani- 

 mals which are well known. In fact, all of the vertebrate animals 

 which have hair and mammary glands fall in this same class. Man 

 is classified in the order Primates in which is grouped also the apes 

 and their relatives. There can be no question but that the structure 

 of the human body is that of a mammal or even a Primate. The 

 suborder is AntJiropoidea ; the family, Hominidae; the genus, Homo; 

 and the species, sapiens. According to studies and discoveries com- 

 ing from many parts of the earth, it seems quite evident that there 

 has been a long progressive development of manlike animals for 

 hundreds of thousands and possibly millions of years to produce the 

 being known as modern man. 



The oldest known representative of the human family is Sinan- 

 thropus pekinensis (Peking man). His remains were found in a 

 cave of Pleistocene times approximately forty miles from Peiping, 

 China. A complete cranium of this form Avas found in 1929 and 

 since that time parts of approximately a dozen others have been lo- 

 cated. They are always found along with the remains of the type 

 of elephant, rhinoceros, horse, saber-toothed tiger and others of the 

 Pleistocene epoch which is estimated to have been between 500,000 

 and 1,000,000 years ago. Anthropologists have agreed that this 

 ehinless apelike skull with a receding forehead, heavy brows, and 

 heavy jaw, belonged to a primitive man who could use tools and 

 build fires. Another important discovery was made in Java in 1891 

 when a skull, a jaw bone, a few teeth, and a femur were found. 

 This specimen is now known as Pithecanthropus erectus (Java man), 

 and from the shape of the femur, it is definitely indicated that he 

 walked erect. The brain cavity is intermediate in size between that 

 of the largest apes and savage man. It is estimated that this form 

 is somewhat less than a million years old. In 1907 a jaw bone found 

 near Heidelberg, Germany, was determined as having come from a 

 primitive man. A few years later, in England, the remains of 

 Eoanthropus dawsoni (Piltdown man) were discovered. The brain 

 cavity was larger than that of Java man and the forehead was 



