282 ANNUAL. REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1923 



istic forms from series of dozens, or even hundreds, of complete 

 skulls with proportionate numbers of skeleton bones. 30 



PRIMATES AND MAN 



The most widely interesting field of paleontological research is that 

 which deals with the geologic history and evolution of our own race, 

 and in this field there have been a series of discoveries and re- 

 searches in recent years of the highest importance.* 1 



First among these I may place the discovery of complete skeletons 

 of Neanderthal man ; the skeleton of Chapelle-aux-Saints, so admir- 

 ably described by Marcellin Boule ; 82 the two skeletons of La Fer- 

 rassie, soon to be described fully by the same distinguished authority, 

 and a series of less complete but important finds in Germany and 

 other central European States. These discoveries have given a very 

 clear and definite concept of the Neanderthal race, as a species clearly 

 distinct from our own, characterized by a series of well-defined 

 physical peculiarities, nearer in many particulars to the anthropoid 

 apes, but clearly not a direct ancestor of our own species. 



The fragmentary skull and jaw found m 1911 near Piltdown, in 

 Sussex, likewise represents an extinct species of man, as different 

 from the Neanderthal man as from our own race. Although corre- 

 sponding in its nearer approach to the anthropoid apes, it probably 

 is not directly ancestral. 33 



Another remarkable skull, discovered at Broken Hill, in Rhodesia, 

 while not of high antiquity, is regarded as representing a survival of 

 the Neanderthal race in South Africa. The Talgai skull from 

 Queensland, rather doubtfully associated with the Pleistocene fauna 

 of Australia, is considered as representing a proto-Australian type 

 of man. 



80 F. S. Daggett (1918): Notes on Pleistocene fossils from Rancho La Brea. Los 

 Angeles Co. Mus. Hist., Sci.,. and Art ; Dept. Nat. Sci., Misc. Publ. 



J. C. Merriam and others : Ut supra. 



W. D. Matthew (1913): Amer. Mus. Jour., vol. xili, p. 291; 1916, ibid., vol. xvi, 

 pp. 45, 469. 



a The literature on fossil primates and the evolution of man is very voluminous. A 

 number of excellent critical reviews of the subject by Osborn, Gregory, Boule, Keith, 

 Sollas, Giuffreda-Ruggeri, Leche,. Arldt, and others cite and discuss the chief contributions. 

 The most important recent contributions on Tertiary primates are the following : 



W. K. Gregory (1920) : Structure and relationships of Notharctus. Mem. Amor. Mus. 

 Nat. Hist., n. s., vol. iii, pp. 49-243, pis. xxiil-lix. 



H. G. Stehlin (1912—1916) : Saiigethiere der schweiz. Eocaens, 7 Teil. Abh. schweiz. 

 palaont. Ges., vols, xxxviii and xli. 



G. E. Pilgrim (1915) : New Siwalik primates and their bearing on the question of the 

 evolution of man and the Anthropoidea. Rec. Geol. Surv. India, vol. xlv, pp. 1-74, 

 pis. i-iv. 



W. K. Gregory (1916) : Studies on the evolution of the primates. Bull. Amer. Mus. 

 Nat. Hist., vol. xxxv, 1921, pp. 239-355 ; Origin and evolution of the human dentition, 

 Baltimore, Williams and Wilkins. 



32 M. Boule (1911-1913) : L'Homme Fossile de Chapelle-aux-Saints, Ann. de Paleont., 

 vols, vi— viii ; 1921, Les Hommes Fossiles. 



"A. S. Woodward, G. Elliott Smith, Arthur Keith, G. S. Miller, W. P. Pycraft, and 

 others, on Piltdown skull. 



