14 THE EVOLUTION OF MAN 



concerning this type of man that the summary of conclusions, 

 which, however, lack the finality of finished research, is all 

 that need be given here. 



The skull-cap is dolichocephalic, estimates of the cranial 

 capacity varying from 710 to 1,060 c.c. as compared with 930 

 to 2,000 c.c. for modern man. The brain, while human in some 

 respects, is subhuman in others, especially in that area in which 

 the memories of past impressions derived from the higher 

 senses are recorded. Whether or not speech was actually used 

 is questioned, but the possibility of it seems clear. 



The straightness of the thigh as compared with that of 

 Neandertal man (see infra, page 24) is marked, so that in 

 Pithecanthropus the posture must have been as fully erect as in 

 modern man. In this he is in no sense a transitional form but 

 in skull characters he is, for the shape of the thigh is corre- 

 lated with that of other parts, the vertebral column with its 

 curves, the pelvis, and the poise of the skull, all of which, one 

 may infer, were distinctly human. 



The teeth of the Java man are also of a distinctly human 

 type, showing no shortening of the roots or development of 

 the pulp cavity, to which Keith has applied the term "tauro- 

 dont" (ox-tooth), as in the Heidelberg and Neandertal races 

 to be described later. The alternative type of teeth he calls 

 "cynodont" (dog-tooth), such as those of modern man and 

 the apes, adapted to a more varied and less harsh diet. Pithe- 

 canthropus had teeth of the latter type. The tooth crowns are 

 wider than long, the reverse of simian dimensions, and al- 

 though they do show certain minor ape-like characters, they 

 also show certain degenerative features. 



Gregory (1920, page 690) thus sums up the status of Pithe- 

 canthropus: 



The association of gibbon-like skull-top, modernized hu- 

 man femur and subhuman upper molars with reduced pos- 

 terior moiety, if correctly assigned to one animal, may perhaps 



