hkdliCka] skeletal KEMAINS OF EARLY MAN 213 



the Saladero skeleton, it was seen from Roth's and Lehmann-Nitsche's 

 statements, are but httle altered, although showing advanced wear, as 

 is general]}^ met with in the more aged Indian. Their relative fresh- 

 ness would be wholly incompatible with any considerable age, espe- 

 cially geologic age, of the skeleton. 



It is plain from the data extant on this find that there are many 

 points relating to the Saladero skeleton which are not satisfactorily 

 cleared up by the evidence, and that its antiquity is not sub- 

 stantiated. This is still another example of a case in regard to 

 man's antiquity in South America which has been made to appear 

 important but which will not stand critical tests. The bones were 

 conceived of as ancient only because, long after their discovery, they 

 were found to show some "fossilization." 



THE FONTEZUELAS SKELETON 



History and Reports 



The Fontezuelas skeleton represents another find by Santiago 

 Roth. It was discovered by him in 1881, at the distance of slightly 

 more than a mile (2-3 km.) from the Rio Arrecifes, in a locality 

 called Pontimelo or, more properly, Fontezuelas. 



The find took place under circumstances which were reported for 

 the first time by A^ogt in 1881 .^ Vogt was informed of the particulars 

 by Roth himself through correspondence and later by oral com- 

 munication. The data are as follows: 



Roth was collecting the remains of extinct animals in the locality 

 under consideration. The terrane of the region, according to him, is 

 com{)osed of (a) the surface layer of vegetal earth; (b) the upper 

 layer of the Pampean formation, 5 to 24 m. in thickness, containing 

 the remains of the glyptodon, hoplophorus, mylodon, and other fossil 

 animals; and (e) a deeper Pampean layer, 1 to 3 m. in thickness, 

 containing the remains of the mastodon, megatherium, panochthus, 

 doedicurus, and toxodon. Beneath layer c is a deep clayey stratum 

 of unknown thickness. 



Layers h and c were considered by Roth as Quaternary but with 

 distinct faunas which were never found mingled. In 1888, however, 

 that author published an account of the fossil animals which he had 

 discovered,^ and the details show that species found in stratum b 

 were also not infrequently encountered in layer c, and vice versa. 



The human bones were discovered in layer b. This layer had 

 become exposed through denudation. Protruding from it were found 

 the edges of the carapace of a glyptodon. The carapace lay slightly 

 obliquely and with its convex part downward, hence in a position the 

 reverse of the natural. Raising this carapace, there were gathered 



1 Vogt, C, Squelette humain associ6 aux glyptodontes; in Bull. Soc. d'Anthr. Paris, 3"» ser., iv, 1881, 

 pp. 693-699. 

 * In Zeitschrift der deutschen geologischen Gesellschaft, xl, Berlin, 1888, pp. 400-401. 



