452 



METAZOAN PHYLA 



to permit it to take up the jar due to contact with the ground, which 

 would otherwise be transmitted upward to the body. 



453. Evidences in Man of Former Arboreal Life. — There are, how- 

 ever, still evidences in man of a former arboreal condition, these being 

 more evident in the child than in the adult. In the young child there 

 are indications of opposabihty on the part of the great toe, and the 

 position of the legs also reminds one of these appendages in the apes. 

 Attention was called by Darwin to the grasping instinct of the child. 

 Very young children show a tendency to grasp things in their hands and 

 have a surprising strength in their arms, being able to support their 

 weight by clinging to an object which they can grasp. 



A 



Fig. 348. — Races of men. A, the ape man, Pithecanthropus. B, the Neanderthal man. 

 C, the Cro-Magnon man. (Pen sketches in New York State Museum Handbook 9, from 

 original busts in the American Museum of Natural History, by McGregor, by the courtesy of 

 the American Museum and the New York State Museum at Albany.) 



454. Intermediate Forms. — The remains of several primates have 

 been found in Europe and Asia which seem to have characteristics of 

 both man and apes but which are more clearly apehke. Evidences 

 have recently been discovered in South Africa of an extinct type which 

 also seems to be more apelike than manlike. In no case, however, are 

 the parts of the body which have been found sufficient to justify a very 

 accurate conception of the character of the animal of whose body they 

 formed a part. In the island of Java parts of the skeleton of a prehistoric 

 type have been found belonging to the genus Pithecanthropus, which has 

 been called the Java ape man (Fig. 348A). This type is extremely low 

 in the human scale according to one view, whereas another view looks 

 upon it as being more like the apes than like man. A recently discovered 

 Asiatic type, bearing many similarities to the one from Java, but with 

 greater skull capacity, is the Peking man, Sinanthropus pekinensis. 

 These remains, found in a hmestone cave near Peiping, China, include 

 one almost perfect brain case. 



