SKELETAL REMAINS SUGGESTING OR ATTRIBUTED 

 TO EARLY MAN IN NORTH AMERICA 



Hy AI.KS lliiMi.n K\ 

 I. INTRODUCTION 



According to current classification of geological time, the Ceno- 

 y.oic era (the era of modern life) is divided into two jNriods, the 

 Tertiary and the Quaternary. The former, which is the older, 

 comprises three subdivisions, Eocene, Miocene, and Pliocene, and 

 the latter two subdivisions. Pleistocene and Recent. These ]>criods 

 are indicated in figure 1 in the order of the formations representing 

 them. 



Man made his apj>earance in the Old World probably during the 

 Tertiary period through differentiation from the primates, the class 

 of animals to which he presents 

 the closest structural analogies. 

 Primates of the higher forms were 

 not found in America : they ex- 

 isted only in the warmer parts of 

 Asia, Africa, and Kurojx>. and it 

 is there that we must look for the 

 first traces of man's appearance. 

 Accepting this view, it follows 

 that America was peopled by im- 

 migration from the Old World, 

 which could not have taken place until after great multiplication and 

 wide distribution of the human sjx'cies and the development of some 

 degree of culture. This implies a vastly later date than that which 

 miiM In- assigned to man's origin. A wide dispersion of the race over 

 the earth could hardly have taken place liefore the later stages of the 

 Ceno/oic era. 



In considering the question of the apjxarance of man in America, 

 special interest attaches to the Pleistocene, during several phases of 

 which jx-riod man is known to have existed in central and western 

 Kuroj>e: there i- absolutely no indication that he reached the Ameri- 

 can continent U'fore that time. The American Pleistocene, which is 

 synchronous with the (Jlaeial |>eriod. is marked by certain well-known 

 geological dcpo-it-. which arc particularly abundant and character- 



iii-ol,<ii nl fiirmati<>ii> roti. i-rni-l in 

 human history. 



