HUMAN LIFE 



it does not allow the fossils to be ascribed 

 definitively to the Pliocene Age, in its 

 very latest days to be sure, at least proves 

 this relic to be an antiquity as old as the 

 very beginning of the Pleistocene or 

 Glacial Age. This is the age immediately 

 succeeding the Pliocene and is the most 

 recent of the geologic series, unless the 

 period since the last great continental 

 glaciers existed is given a special name, 

 such as Recent (with a capital letter) 

 or Present, to distinguish it from that 

 period which included the several glacial 

 and interglacial times now recognized as 

 comprised in the so-called Glacial Age. 

 Pithecanthropus has been variously 

 hailed with joy as the long-sought missing 

 link or looked on with scorn as an in 

 dividual degenerate human reversion, or 

 looked on, with less emotion but more 

 judgment, as a creature of very great 

 interest and importance in the study of 

 man s origin whether it be called highest 

 of apes or lowest of men or whether it be 

 excluded from the direct line of human 

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