WHOLE VOL. SKELETAL REMAINS OF EARLY MAN HRDLICKA 6l 



nothing that would make such a sequence impossible. " But with 

 the recognition of the Trinil skullcap as a transitional form [to man] 

 it is naturally by no means said that precisely from this Pithecan- 

 thropus recent men have been developed." It is more probable that 

 the descendants of the Trinil Pithecanthropus have not reached the 

 present time. Notwithstanding this, the Pithecanthropus phyloge- 

 netically is nevertheless to be regarded as a connecting form ; for he is 

 a paleontological proof that such transitional beings really existed. 

 Whether precisely the Javanese Pithecanthropus is a direct member 

 of our genealogy, is somewhat secondary, and we must regard as 

 overdrawn all theories which would base on him the conclusion 

 that man originated in southeastern Asia. " The chimpansoid juvenile 

 skull of Taungs, together with the corresponding lower jaw of Pilt- 

 down in southern England show us in connection with the Trinil 

 remains of Java what space for the cradle of man is available. On 

 the points of this triangle, which embraces almost all the Old World, 

 we have fossil representatives of chimpansoid derivation, which were 

 all suitable with a corresponding further evolution to reach the stem 



of the Hominidae But a single discovered fossil specimen can 



never seriously serve as a proof for the origin of a whole genus " 



(P- 542). 



The exact age of the remains is still somewhat uncertain. 



Concerning the question whether the femur and the skullcap belong 

 to the same individual nothing decisive has as yet been brought 

 forth, though such connection seems most probable. The placing 

 of the Trinil femur between our anthropoid ancestors and the Ne- 

 anderthaloid forms of man appears not impossible. 



Taking everything into consideration the indications are that the 

 Pithecanthropus crcctits was a being that well deserved the name of 

 " a human transitional form from Java " which, not in single speci- 

 mens but as a type, can show us the way followed in human evolution 

 from the lower forms. 



" Just as the next lower relations of this form were still animals, 

 while the next higher relation was undoubtedly man, so may the 

 Pithecanthropus be the ' missing link ' that Dubois was searching 

 for and found. Should it be necessary, however, to substantiate the 

 appurtenance of this intermediary form to one or the other side then 

 it belongs undoubtedly to that of the human kind. The Pithecan- 

 thropus crcctus is a Homo whose unique position and its undisputed 

 significance justify the generic name of 'Ape Man ' " (pp. 545-546). 



