358 



THE RISE OF ANIMAL LIFE 



orly in a pronounced chin and the face was 

 short and broad with the eyes set far apart. 

 Undoubtedly, he was a handsome fellow. 



In culture these men far surpassed their 

 predecessors. They made their hunting 

 weapons skillfully, producing the spear and 

 axe, and they may have even devised the 

 bow and arrow. They apparently were su- 

 perior hunters, as judged by the contents 

 of their caves, which are strewn with the 

 bones of large animals they had killed and 

 feasted upon. They probably clothed them- 

 selves with skins of animals to protect their 

 hairless bodies from the elements. They 

 evidently possessed great skill in making 

 and mixing paints, and in depicting the life 

 as it existed in their time, for they have left 

 behind on the walls of many caves in Spain 

 and southern France, magnificent paintings 

 showing many of the animals which they 

 hunted. These are portrayed in a most real- 

 istic manner, even to the natural colors 

 which have resisted the ravages of time. 

 From these paintings a great deal has been 

 learned about the fauna of these areas, 

 much of which has since become extinct. 

 The remains of these men would indicate 

 that they were superior both mentally and 

 physically to any races alive toda,y. What, 

 then, has happened to them? Some think 

 their descendants still live in Europe today. 

 If so, are they degenerate types? Is Homo 

 sapiens actually on the decline? 



Knowledge of early Homo sapiens in 

 other parts of the world is not as complete 

 as in Europe, although remains have been 

 unearthed elsewhere that give an inkling as 

 to the origin of some present-day races. One 

 might expect to find some early Negroid 

 types in Africa, the home of the Negro. An 

 early skull from the Sahara does show 

 Negroid characteristics. As this part of the 

 world becomes more modernized the dig- 

 gings of various sorts which always accom- 

 pany the process will perhaps throw more 

 light on this problem. Undoubtedly, rich 

 deposits exist in parts of Asia which when 

 unearthed will reveal an interesting story 



concerning the origin of the Mongoloids 

 about whom little or nothing is known 

 today. 



Apparently, Homo sapiens invaded 

 America comparatively recently, because 

 no remains of very early man have been 

 found. The primates that were here in the 

 early Tertiary times became extinct and no 

 others appeared until modern man made 

 his way from Asia across Bering Straits. It 

 is highly probable that this is the path he 

 took in populating the Americas, because 

 geologists have shown that a drop in the 

 sea level of 100 feet would leave a land 

 connection between Asia and North Amer- 

 ica. Such rising and falling of the sea took 

 place near the end of the great glacial pe- 

 riod. For many thousands of years it was 

 possible for these people, filtering gradu- 

 ally over this narrow neck of land, to mi- 

 grate southward to the semi-tropical and 

 tropical regions of the Americas. 



Races of Homo sapiens 



It hardly seems possible that all men 

 from the African pigmy to the towering 

 Swede are of the same species, yet by our 

 definition of species this is true. The fact 

 that all members of the human race alive 

 today will interbreed is one of the most im- 

 portant criteria for a species. When an 

 attempt is made to differentiate between 

 races (varieties of mankind) the matter of 

 criteria to be used for distinction is a monu- 

 mental problem. It has never been possible 

 to use national boundaries or even lan- 

 guages to differentiate races. For centuries 

 man has been on the move constantly, rov- 

 ing from place to place; today his wan- 

 derings are even greater than they have 

 ever been, due to improved transportation. 

 However, some limitation has been placed 

 upon him by boundaries laid down by both 

 emigration and immigration laws; if it were 

 not for these the intermingling would be 

 such that in a few centuries it would be 

 more difficult to distinguish races than it is 

 today. 



