THE EVOLUTION OF MAN 



orang-outangs. So much we can tell by well 

 preserved bones. It is evident that the unlike 

 sons of that mysterious archetype had already 

 branched of! at that period, and the types had 

 become so plain that they could be separated into 

 anthropoid apes and men. 



It seems, however, that the bones of Pithe- 

 canthropus, which we know belonged to the ex- 

 treme end of the Tertiary period, are apparently 

 many thousand years younger than those bones 

 of the Miocene period. If that creature of Trinil 

 still contained in the germ a common thorough- 

 bred type, then it follows that this type must 

 have lived simultaneously with its unlike sons 

 on the island of Java, even after the lapse of so 

 many thousand years. 



Of course, such a thing would not be impossi- 

 ble. Only we might ask whether that thorough- 

 bred type could have been preserved in its orig- 

 inal form during this entire period. We might 

 be inclined to suspect at least some of the least 

 typical characteristics and assume that this type 

 might have developed a little further and adapted 

 itself to the new conditions, while nevertheless 

 it might still give us a far better idea of the ac- 

 tual course of development than the present 

 anthropoid apes. 



53 



