360 BUBEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 52 



In 1910 also Lehmann-Nitsche says a few additional words on the 

 Monte Hermoso atlas/ without, however, adding any new facts. 

 His text reads as follows: 



"From the inferior Pampean formation we know but a single small 

 bone related with the human being. It is the first cervical vertebra 

 or atlas, which has been discovered at Monte Hermoso. ... It 

 does not present likeness with the corresponding bone of the gorilla 

 and orang-outang but is similar to the atlas of the actual man, so 

 that at first view it can be taken as belonging to the latter. Never- 

 theless, it offers particular characteristics which are encountered only 

 occasionally in the actual human genus and which always occur in 

 an isolated manner, never jointly as in this case. This atlas is, 

 before all, small and stout; its superior articular surfaces run in 

 almost parallel directions, which proves that the bone was not obliged 

 to carry a voluminous brain. The atlas of the present South Amer- 

 ican natives offers greater likeness to that of Monte Hermoso than 

 any other atlas of other living races; however, superior articulate 

 facets of the present-day atlas always diverge notably, being the 

 supports of a larger and heavier brain. It results from this that the 

 specimen must be considered as proceeding from a human or huma- 

 noid being, with tendency toward development into one of the actual 

 human forms, especially that of some of the South American abo- 

 rigines. 



"The difficulty which existed in the classification of the carrier of 

 this atlas whom I named Homo neogseus [man of the new world], 

 with the remainder of fossil human remains and with the Pithe- 

 canthropus of Java, diminishes through the discovery by Prof, v. 

 Ihering, of Sao Paulo, of which he gave an account before the Seven- 

 teenth International Congress of Americanists recently held at 

 Buenos Aires. According to him there existed during the first half 

 of the Tertiary a continent which disappeared long since, connecting 

 eastern Asia with Central America. Moreover, mammals of the 

 northern hemisphere which came to South America did not emigrate 

 all at one time but in two distinct epochs. With this Miocene fauna 

 emigrated perhaps also, towards Central America, the precursors of 

 man, and in this manner the history of man may be most ancient in 

 Argentina while it is most modern in North America. This removes, 

 it is seen, the difficulty which existed in connecting the Homo neogseus 

 with the cradle of the PitJiecanthropus, but I shall not enter into con- 

 clusions which, for the moment, would be too anticipatory," 



The same year the Monte Hermoso atlas and femur are also briefly 

 dealt with by Friedemann.^ This observer had seen the originals and 



1 Lehmann-Nitsche, R., El hombre fcisil pampeano; in Bolet'm de la Oficina Nacional de Estadistica, La 

 Paz, Bolivia, vi, 1910, pp. 303-366. 



2 Friedemann, M., Vorlage eines Gipsabgusses des Schadeldaches von Diprothomo platensis Ameghino; 

 in Zeitschr. fiir. Ethn., Heft 6, Berlin, 1910, pp. 934-935. 



