262 Lloyd's natural history. 



simian, and of all the apes it most resembled the Gibbons' 

 {Hylobates) \ but it was far superior in its cranial arch — low 

 and depressed as the arch was — to that of any ape. The 

 frontal region was narrow and the supraciliary ridges prominent. 

 The neck area of the occipital bone was also ape-like in form. 

 The thigh-bone (femur), on the other hand, presented human 

 characters in a very marked degree, and gave no indication 

 that the individual who owned it was in the habit of sitting 

 on his hams. The molar teeth were likewise more human 

 than ape-like, although they presented many strong simian 

 characters. Dr. Dubois has assigned these remarkable fossils to a 

 species which he has named Pithecanthropus erectus (the Erect 

 Ape-man), as he believes that their owner occupied a place in 

 the genealogical tree below the point of devarication of the 

 anthropoid apes from the human line. Dr. Cunningham, of 

 Dubhn, however, who is one of our most eminent anatomists 

 and anthropologists, would place it " on the human line, a 

 short distance above the point at which the anthropoid branch 

 is given off"; for he could "not believe that an ape-form 

 with a cranial capacity of i,ooo centimetres could be the 

 progenitor of the man-like apes, the largest of which had a 

 capacity of only 500. Such a supposition would necessarily 

 involve the assumption that the anthropoid apes were a 

 degenerated branch from the common stem." Altogether, 

 then, a study of these important remains tends to show that 

 Pitheca7ithropus had the lowest human cranium known, and 

 was the most ape-like ancestor of the human race yet 

 described. He was very nearly as much below the Neander- 

 thal man as he was below the normal European. It should be 

 stated that some doubt has been expressed whether all the 

 remains belong to one and the same species of animal. Dr. 

 Dubois' arguments for their really belonging to the same 

 individual appear, however, very convincing. 



