004 



NATURE 



[January 6, 192 1 



the ancient inhabitants of Java and (Jueensland. 

 The discovery in 1913 of fossihscd human remains 

 at Boskop, in the Potchefstroom district of the 

 Transvaal, throws a welcome light on the ancient 

 inhabitants of South Africa, and gives the means 

 of comparing the early inhabitants of remote con- 

 tinents. An account of the Boskop find was con- 

 tributed to NATiiRE for August 5, 1915, vol. xcv., 

 p. 615, by Mr. F. W. FitzSimons, of Port Eliza- 

 beth -Museum, and a detailed description of the 

 remains has since been published by Mr. S. H. 

 Haughton.^ In none ol these discoveries, 

 in Java, in (Queensland, or in South .Africa, has it 

 been possible to gi\e a definite geological age 

 to the deposits in which the human remains oc- 

 curred, yet in each case a Pleistocene date has 

 been assigned to the remains by their describers- 

 an inference which is justified, not only by their 

 condition and surroundings, but also by the primi- 

 tive structural features which are stamped on them. 

 The more complete fossil skull described by 

 Prof. Dubois is that of a woman showing features 

 which characterise .\ustraloid races, save that the 

 dimensions of the skull are excessive. The length 

 of this ancient woman's skull is 200 mm. and its 

 width 145 mm., measurements which are rarely 

 met with even in the most robust .Australian male 

 aborigines. Prof. Dubois, allowing for the great 

 thickness of the cranial wall — 10 mm. on the 

 vault — estimates that its cranial capacity or brain 

 space was 1550 c.c. — more than 200 c.c. above 

 that of the average modern Englishwoman. The 

 jaws of the second individual tound are much 

 larger and more robustly framed than those of 

 the woman, and are inferred by Prof. Dubois to 

 represent the opposite sex. The upper jaw and 

 palate of this ancient man of Java arc such as 

 have never been seen before in either ancient or 

 modern man. In anthropoid apes the molar teeth 

 are set in two approximately parallel rows on 

 each side of the palate ; this arrangement is more 

 exactly preserved in the extinct natives of Tas- 

 mania, and to a less degree in the native tribes 

 of Australia, than amongst any other existing race 

 of mankind. Bui. in the Java or Wadjak skulls, 

 although .Australoid in all their cranial and facial 

 features, the teeth are set on the palate in a horse- 

 shoe form, much as is the case in the Pleistocene 

 European — Homo neanderthalfnsis. The teeth, 

 however, show none of the dental characteristics of 

 that race. The width of the palatal area of the 

 Wadjak fossil man, measured between the outer 

 borders of the second molar teeth, is 81 mm., 

 7 mm. more than has yet been observed in any 

 human palate. The lerfgth of the palate — 

 measured from the crowns of the incisors to a line 

 joining the hinder borders of the last molar teeth 

 — must have been well above 60 mm.- -a measure- 

 ment occasionally exceeded in the palates of 

 modern Australian natives. The palatal area, en- 

 closed within the outer border of the dental arch, 

 is enormous, being, according to Prof. Dubois' 

 estimate, 41 4 sq. cm., to which some 4 sq. cm. 



^ 'Trans: Roy. Soc. South Africa, 1917, vol. vi., p. i. 

 NO. 2671, VOL. 106] 



must be added on account of the missing incisor 

 crowns. The corresponding area of the average 

 modern Englishman is 2O sq. cm. ; the largest 

 measurement in living native races is 36-7 sq. cm. 

 These figures give some indication of the remark- 

 able jaw and face development of the fossil Wad- 

 jak race. 



The Talgai skull from (Queensland,- described 

 by Dr. S. A. Smith, of Sydney University, is that 

 of a lad of about fifteen or sixteen years of age. 

 Its cranial walls had been severely crushed by 

 earth-pressure, but fortunately the palate and face 

 are in good condition- a most fortunate circum- 

 stance, for it becomes more and more evident that 

 we must trust to facial rather than to cranial 

 features for the recognition and discrimination of 

 human races. So far as the cranial features and 

 dimensions of the Talgai lad are preserved, they 

 show Australoid characteristics — the cranial 

 capacity being certainly above that of Australian 

 aboriginal youths of the present day. Here, 

 again, the outstanding character of the fossil type 

 is to be found in the palate, which has been very 

 fuUv investigated and described by Dr. S. A. 

 Smith. In the form of its dental arcade the 

 Talgai skull possesses the most anthropoid palate 

 vet discovered. \'ery probably, were the palate 

 of Piltdown man to be found, it would show these 

 anthropoid features to an even greater degree. 

 The two canine teeth in the Talgai boy are set 

 very widely apart, almost as widely as the molar 

 teeth. The width of the palatal area is 66-5 mm. ; 

 allowing for the unerupted wisdom teeth, its 

 length amounts to about 70 mm. ; the total area, 

 although less than on the Javanese fossil .Austra- 

 loid skull, is still very large, amounting to about 

 40 sq. cm. 



Thus we have evidence which seems to 

 justifv us in supposing that at a certain period 

 of the Pleistocene age men fashioned in a primi- 

 tive Australoid mould, with large brains and mas- 

 sive palates, lived in Java and .Australia ; but so 

 far as the palate is concerned the fossil stock of 

 Java had differentiated in one direction, the Aus- 

 tralian in another. It is amongst the extinct race, 

 which inhabited Tasmania down to modern times, 

 that we find the nearest approach to the anthro- 

 poidal palate and the massive teeth of the Talgai 

 boy. On a consideration of all his features we 

 must place the Talgai boy in the ancestral stock 

 of the Tasmanian type of Australoids. Dr. S. A. 

 Smith cites the discovery of the fossil bones of the 

 dingo in .Australian deposits of Pleistocene date 

 as evidence of the early arrival of man in the 

 continent of Australia, for it is difficult to believe 

 that the native dog arrived save in the company 

 of man. The discoveries made at Talgai, in 

 Queensland, and at Wadjak, in Java, lend 

 strong support to this early arrival of man in 

 Australia. ^^'hether the Talgai lad represents 

 the first invaders, and whether these earlv comers 

 were the primitive ancestors of the aborigines of 

 Tasmania, are doubts which must be settled by 

 future discoveries. 



