hbdliCka] skeletal REMAINS OF EAELY MAN 351 



and in which I am very happy to find myself in accord with Dr. 

 Lehmann-Nitsche, is that he recognizes the existence of the precursor 

 of man at Monte Hermoso, and the age of the deposit as at least 

 Pliocene. The Tertiary age of the strata of Monte Hermoso having 

 lately been admitted even by M. Steinmann, the existence of Tertiary 

 man in Argentina becomes a definitely established fact." 



The paper to which Ameghino refers above appeareil later as a 

 part of Lehmann-Nitsche's ''Nouvelles recherches sur la formation 

 pampeenne, etc."^ 



Lehmann-Nitsche goes also into considerable detail in studying 

 the bone and compares it with 16 atlases of Indians of South America. 

 The principal results of his examination are brought together on 

 page 397. The "notable characteristics of the atlas of Monte Her- 

 moso, which are never found in the same bone of the South American 

 natives with which it was compared, follow: 



''The entire form is remarkably small and heavy; the posterior 

 arch is extraordinarily broad and its external surface elevates itself 

 in the form of a rectangular ridge up to the median longitudinal line; 

 the form of the superior articular facets is that of an irregular ovoid 

 and rather short and broad; its longitudinal axis diverges very slightly 

 backward; the inferior articular facets are large, proportionately to 

 the whole vertebra." 



Characteristics of the bone which were only rarely met with by 

 Lehmann-Nitsche in the material used for comparison were: 



"The internal border of the superior articular facets is very slightly 

 outside the vertical line of the corresponding border of the inferior 

 facets; and the posterior root of the transverse apophysis is notably 

 rnore developed than the anterior." 



The author then enumerates the differences and similarities be- 

 tween the Monte Hermoso atlas and those of the orang and gorilla; 

 it is to be regretted that these comparisons apply, however, to only 

 a single atlas of each of the anthropoids. 



Among additional points of difference between the j\Ionte Her- 

 moso atlas and that of the South American Indian, there are, accord- 

 ing to Lehmann-Nitsche, characteristics of inferiority in the former 

 which denote a being with a brain but slightly developed. Never- 

 theless, the specimen is found "to approximate more closely the 

 atlas of modern man than that of the anthropoids." 



On the basis of the morphologic and geologic considerations, 

 Lehmann-Nitsche proposes to regard the "Tertiary primate of Monte 

 Hermoso" as a particular species of man "which certainly was very 

 primitive and must have approached very closely the Pithecan- 

 thropus, and names it the Homo neogseus. 



1 In Rev. Mvs. La Plata, xiv, Buenos Aires, 1907, pp. 386-410. Some copies of the part on the atlas were 

 distributed prelimiuarily in leaflet form, as mentioned by Ameghino. 



