MAMMALIA 



415 



Hominidae. — Man resembles the lower vertebrates in general 

 characteristics and differs less in structure from the higher apes 

 than do the monkeys. The Hominidae differ from the Simiidae 

 chiefly in the development of the brain and in those characteristics 

 associated with an erect posture. 



Among the most striking of the characteristics differentiating 

 man are his increased brain development and power of articulate 

 speech; reduced canine 

 teeth, spinal column adapted 

 to erect posture with four 

 distinct curves; basin-shaped 

 pelvis which supports vis- 

 cera; arms shorter than legs 

 and with opposable thumbs, 

 arched (shock-absorbing) 

 feet. Whether loss of hair 

 has come from the wearing 

 of clothes is a subject for 

 conjecture. (Figure 235.) 



Fossil Man. — Human 

 fossils are very rare, and 

 when found are either in 

 river valley deposits or in 

 those limestone caverns that 

 served as homes and later as 

 burial places. 



The Java ape-man 

 {Pithecayithropiis ei'ectiis) , 

 consisting of a cranium, a 



femur and four teeth, was ^ — g 



discovered by E. Dubois in ^^^ ,_^^_ Skeletons of man and of gorilla, 

 a river deposit at Trinil, (Lull. Courtesy of The Macmillan Co.) 



Central Java, in 1891. The 



age of the geological formation was estimated at about 500,000 

 years (Early Pleistocene). The teeth were more human than in 

 the gibbon and the skull capacity was about two-thirds that of 

 man. Pithecanthropus erectus was about five feet, seven inches tall. 



The Heidelberg jaw, representing the oldest recorded European 

 race {Homo heidelbergensis), was discovered in 1907 in a gravel pit 

 seventy-nine feet below the surface, at Mauer, near Heidelberg, S. 



