WHOLE VOL. SKELETAL REMAINS OF EARLY MAN HRDLICKA 47 



somatological characteristics of the specimens. Dubois, therefore, 

 is still inclined to regard the Pithecanthropus remains as [late] Plio- 

 cene rather than Pleistocene. 



THE SKULLCAP 



The skullcap, in Dubois' opinion (not shared by others), "has 

 been deformed in a natural way (through trigonocephalism, though 

 in a small degree) " (p. 266). 



Looked at from above, the skullcap is markedly ovoid, with the 

 narrower part in front and extended forward by a large though not 

 very heavy supraorl)ital shelf which contains large frontal sinuses. 

 This " whole precerebral part of the frontal bone is hylobatoid, like 

 the rest" (p. 267). 



The outer surface of the frontal bone shows antero-posteriorly 

 along its middle a slight keel-shaped elevation which terminates above, 

 in about the position of the bregma, in a somewhat more marked 

 rhomboid prominence. Dubois believes this prominence was less 

 marked before the bone was corroded. The median ridge is the so- 

 called median frontal torus and is believed to be due in Man to an 

 early fusion of the two fetal halves of the frontal bone. 



Ventrally, the skullcap, particularly in the frontal region, shows 

 strong impressions of the cerebral convolutions. In details of its 

 conformation it agrees partly with man, partly with the gibbon. 

 " The form of the skull of the Pithecanthropus (p. 269) is on the 

 whole not human ; nor is it a transition of any type of manlike apes 

 to the human type." The agreement " with the anthropoid cranial 

 type, particularly that of the small gibbon species, of the genus 

 Hylobates, may on the other hand be called perfect " ; it extends to 

 many features such as the arching of the vault, the receding forehead, 

 the pre-cerebral part of the frontal bone, the constriction behind the 

 orbits, etc. " In all these points Pithecanthropus is distinguished no 

 less strongly than the Anthropoid Apes from the Neanderthal Man." 

 The detailed characteristics of the skull indicate now to Dubois that 

 the erect posture of the body of the Pithecanthropus, " which clearly 

 appears from the shape of the femur, was not such a perfect one as 

 in Man ; the correlation, at least, did not extend to the skull. 



" Nor can the skull, however, have belonged to an Anthropoid Ape, 

 because the relatively very large skull as regards shape presents a 

 close, nay striking resemblance with the skull of a small Hylobates 

 species, the smallest of the Anthropoid Apes, whereas judging not 

 only from the femur and the molar teeth, but also from the skull 

 itself, Pithecanthropus must have surpassed the size of a large chim- 

 panzee, and very much that of a middle-sized man " (p. 270). 



