NEANDERTHAL MAN 
The skull (Plate 29) is gray in color, with large mud- 
brownish or gray-sepia patches, on the outside, and 
whitish gray to whitish brown on the inside. It is de- 
cidedly heavy and much mineralized. It is plainly non- 
pathological. The sagittal suture has evidently closed 
earlier than it ordinarily does in civilized modern man, 
but this must have taken place after the brain ceased to 
influence the cranial vault, for it resulted in no perceptible 
deformation. The coronal suture is obliterated up to the 
temporal ridges, while the lambdoid is still patent. Simi- 
lar conditions to these are sometimes met with in the 
skulls of persons beyond the fiftieth year of life, and if not 
attended by scaphocephaly or other consequent deforma- 
tion can not be regarded as abnormal. The serration of 
the lambdoid suture is decidedly simpler than in modern 
human skulls. 
The facial and basal parts are lacking. The vault 
shows very good dimensions in length and breadth, but 
is strikingly low, and the bones are considerably thicker 
than in the white man of today, so that the brain cavity 
was only moderate. 
Besides its lowness the vault is characterized by a very 
decided protrusion of the whole supraorbital region. The 
supraorbital torus, or arch, formed through this pro- 
trusion is heavier than in any other known example of 
Homo neanderthalensis. The line from the glabella to the 
naso-frontal articulation is relatively extensive and 
passes considerably backward and downward, indicating 
a very marked depression at the root of the nose, not 
unlike that which is present in the adult gorilla. Like- 
wise owing to the forward extension of the supraorbital 
arch, the upper parts of the planes of the orbits face very 
perceptibly downward, while in modern man they face 
somewhat upward or approach the vertical. 
The forehead is low and slopes markedly backward; 
nevertheless it presents a moderately well-defined con- 
vexity. The sagittal region is oval from side to side, much 
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