OUR ANCIENT RELATIVES 



and teeth tend to bridge the gap between the high- 

 est apes and the lowest men. 



Such were the last fleeting souvenirs of the pre- 

 human stage, surviving millions of years after the 

 first separation of the human and great ape fam- 

 ilies. They represent various degrees of approxi- 

 mation toward the modernized type of face, from 

 the almost ape-like lower jaw of Piltdown to the 

 highbred old man of Cro-Magnon (Fig. 42G). 

 Thus the scant evidence suggests that even in 

 Lower Pleistocene times there were already several 

 different types of mankind, some (such as Pilt- 

 down) more progressive or less ape-like in the 

 shape of the forehead, while more conservative in 

 the form of the dentition and jaw, others (Pithe- 

 canthropus) with a lower form of forehead and not 

 improbably a more progressive form of jaw. 

 Whether these represent individual, racial or 

 specific difference is not fully demonstrated ; in any 

 case they suggest that within the family of man- 

 kind there was a remarkably wide range of varia- 

 bility in facial characters, as there still is. 



The profound agreement between mankind and 



the anthropoid group in anatomical <^haracteristics 



and in physiological reactions and to a certain 



73 



