THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF ANIMAL LIFE 



625 



cult to say whether they are ape or manHke. 

 The skull of Australopithecus resembled 

 an ape; the volume of its brain is estimated 

 at approximately 600 ml., which is only 

 about half as large as modern man. The 

 forehead, however, was more humanlike 

 than that of living apes. The fossils give 

 good evidence that the Africa ape man 

 had a standing body posture approaching 

 that of man rather than that of the ape. He 

 also appears to have been an animal-hunt- 

 ing, flesh-eating, shell-cracking primate. No 

 living ape lives on such a diet. It is believed 

 by some authorities that these animals with 

 both human and ape characteristics are 

 ancesors of man, and our interest in them 

 lies in the fact that they may be the begin- 

 ning of the human line. However, for the 

 time being, this is only a possibility. 



Java ape man 

 (Pithecanthropus erectus) 



The word Pithecanthropus means ape 

 man and was applied to the remains of a 

 creature that lived about 500,000 years ago 

 because it possessed characteristics both hu- 

 man and apelike. The skull cap, femur, and 

 two molar teeth were discovered in central 

 Java in 1891, associated with the remains of 

 certain extinct animals, which helped de- 

 termine the geologic position (Upper Plio- 



cene) of the ape man. These bones are suf- 

 ficient for an anthropologist to reconstruct 

 the animal to which they belonged. The 

 cranial capacity of Pithecanthropus was 

 about two-thirds that of modern man. The 

 teeth are larger than human teeth. The 

 femur resembles that of modern man, and 

 its shape proves that Pithecanthropus stood 

 erect. 



Peking man 

 (Sinanthropus pek'mensis) 



The Peking man lived in a cave near 

 Peking, China, where the teeth and parts 

 of jaws and skulls of more than 35 individ- 

 uals have been discovered. The teeth are hu- 

 man, but primitive; the skulls resemble that 

 of Pithecanthropus, and the jaws exhibit 

 apelike characteristics. 



Heidelberg man 

 (Homo heidelbergensis) 



The Heidelberg man is known from a 

 lower jaw found near Heidelberg, Germany, 

 in 1907. This jaw is heavy and much like 

 that of a gorillalike anthropoid, but the 

 teeth are small and of the human type. The 

 conclusion of some anthropologists is that 

 the jaw belonged to a man who had not 

 evolved very far from the point of separation 



Ape 



Java ape man 



Modern man 



Figure 442. Comparison of brain cases and faces of an ape, fossil man, and modern man. 

 Note lack of chin in both ape and Java ape man; and as the brain increased in size, there was 

 less jaw and face. 



