Mammalia: Classification 771 



CATARRHINA. Nasal septum narrow; nostrils open more nearly 

 forward and downward. Nails on all digits. Tail long, short, or lacking, 

 but never prehensile. 



Three Families are distinguished: 



Cercopithecidae: Macaque, baboon (Fig. 589), langur, pro- 

 boscis monkey, and many other monkeys. Asia and Africa. 



Simiidae: Gibbon, the smallest of them, only in the Malay region: 

 orangutan, Borneo and Sumatra; gorilla and chimpanzee, Africa 

 only: (Figs. 590, 591). 



Hominidae: Man; origin in Eastern Hemisphere. Present knowl- 

 edge concerning the origin of the human race is derived chiefly from 

 fragmentary remains found in widely separated regions of the Old 

 World. Based on this scanty material, the following early human or 

 prehuman types have been recognized: 



Australopithecus africanus, the "Taungs skull" from Soulli 

 Africa; intermediate between skull of ape and human skull. 



Pithecanthropus erectus, the "Java man," but somewhat 

 apelike. 



Eoanthropus, the "Piltdown man" from Sussex, England. 



Sinanthropus, the "Peking man" from China. 



Homo rhodesiensis, from Bhodesia, South Africa. 



Homo heidelbergensis, the "Heidelberg man" from Germany : 

 lower jaw only. 



Homo neanderthalensis, the "Neanderthal man" from Ger- 

 many and various parts of Europe. 



Homo sapiens, the "Cro-Magnon man" of southern France, and 

 the several races of modern man. 



Relationships of Groups of Mammals 



Knowledge of early mammals is too scanty to warrant positive 

 statements about the relationships of the three Subclasses of existing 

 mammals. The reptilian characteristics of monotremes and the fact 

 that modern marsupials are in many respects intermediate between 

 monotremes and placentals does not necessarily mean that the three 

 groups stand in direct linear evolutionary relationship. The ancestors 

 of modern monotremes must have been mammals having numerous 

 strongly marked reptilian characteristics, including oviparous repro- 

 duction. Ornithorhynchiis and Echidna are highly specialized in some 

 respects — the former in connection with semiaquatic habits and the 

 latter as an anteater. These two animals must be a remnant of a mam- 

 malian line of very ancient origin, along which, in the main, primitive 

 reptilian characteristics have been retained, even down to the present, 



