512 



ANNUAL KEPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1913. 



The main dimensions of the bone as taken by the writer and con- 

 trasted with a modern male German jaw of average strength, are as 

 follows : 



Measurements of the Mauer jaw and those of an ordinary lower jaic of a white 



man of German descent. 



Mauer jaw. 



Right 

 side. 



Left 

 side. 



German jaw. 



Bight 

 side. 



Left 

 side. 



Horizontal length (from the most forward point of the alveolar border 

 in the middle, to the middle of the posterior border of the ascending 



ramus) 



Bread I h: 



B igonial 



Bicoronoid 



Bicondylar 



Vertical height in the median line at front (the jaw reposing naturally 



on a horizontal surface) 



Height at middle of second molar 



Thickness (at right angle to the vertical diameter of the horizontal 



ramus) at median incisors and midway from above downward 



At second molars 



Maximum (at third molars) 



Smallest breadth of the ascending ramus 



Length of dental arch 



Breadth of the dental arch 



Length of the three molars, at insertion 



12.5 



12.1 



9.1 



It is readily seen that the jaw exceeds considerably that of the 

 modern man in every dimension. 



The carefulness of the workingmen in the Mauer sand deposits 

 has been redoubled since the find of the jaw, and the locality has also 

 been subjected to considerable scientific exploration, but thus far 

 without further result so far as human remains are concerned. No 

 signs were discovered which would indicate that the specimen found 

 in 1907 proceeded from a burial. Evidently it became mingled 

 accidentally and while still fairly fresh with the ancient alluvium, 

 wherein by rare good fortune it was perfectly preserved. There can 

 be but little hope that other parts of the same skull or skeleton wiU 

 ever be recovered ; but it is not impossible that the large early accu- 

 midations of the Elsenz Valley may inclose and some day yield 

 parts of some equally early individual which will throw further light 

 on the physical organization of this most interesting ancient repre- 

 sentative of humanity. 



THE SKULL OF GIBBALTAB. 



This highly valuable but comparatively little known specimen is 

 preserved in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, England, 

 where, thanks to the courtesy of the curator, Prof. Arthur Keith, 

 the writer was able to examine it and have it photogi^aphed. 



The history of the specimen is, regrettably, somewhat defective. 

 The first mention of it occurs in Falconer's Paleontological Memoirs,^ 



1 Falconer, Hugh. Paleontological memoirs and notes, 2 vols., 8°, London, 18tJ8 ; also 

 Quart. Journ. Geol. See. London, vol. 21, 1865, p. 369. 



