PROBLEM OF THE RHODESIAN FOSSIL MAN 579 



be continued forwards this passes through the narial opening 

 as in the highest races of men. The basicranial axis, which 

 has not yet been thoroughly examined, is only slightly modified 

 in relation to the large size of the face, and there can be no 

 doubt that the skull was poised on an erect skeleton. 



This conclusion is especially interesting because the two 

 ends of the thigh-bone and the nearly complete shin-bone found 

 with the skull do not differ in any essential respect from the 

 corresponding parts of a tall and robust modern man. They 

 are totally different from the thigh-bone and shin-bone of 

 Neanderthal Man found in the caves of Belgium and France. 

 The Rhodesian cave man, therefore, represents a distinct species, 

 Homo rhodesiensis ,^ which differs from H. neanderthalensis in 

 his erect skeleton as well as his relatively large face. This 

 additional feature again suggests that among extinct races the 

 South African is later than the European just compared. 



The lands of the Southern Hemisphere have indeed always 

 been the refuges in which old types have survived long after 

 they became out of date and displaced in the more progressive 

 Northern Hemisphere. They are still the refuges of many 

 antique forms of life which we otherwise know only by fossils. 

 The discovery in the Rhodesian cave now seems to show that 

 races of unfinished men were among the latest refugees in the 

 south. The new race in question does not fill precisely any 

 gap in a direct series uniting modern man with his ape-like 

 ancestry. It merely represents one of the latest variants 

 among the multitude which will eventually be discovered to 

 have passed away as failures during the progress of man in the 

 making. It is an advanced stage in which arrested brain - 

 development accompanies enlargement instead of refinement of 

 the face. 



* A. Smith Woodward, " A New Cave-man from Rhodesia, South Africa," 

 Nature, November 17, 1921. 



