370 



BUREAU or AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[BfLL. ri2 



mals. Yet, on closer view it is seen to present several rather singular 

 features, which seem to bring it into some relation with the human 



thigh h(ine. The principal of 

 these features are a relatively 

 long median condyle; a supra- 

 trochlear fossa; a torsion of the 

 shaft; a trace of backward bend 

 of the shaft; and a very percepti- 

 ble bend of the same, above its 

 middle, outward. These few fea- 

 tures are mainly responsible for 

 the identification of the bone as 

 that of a precursor of man and 

 the}" demand therefore careful 

 consideration. 



Detailed study and compari- 

 son. — The shaft of the Monte 

 Hermoso femur is rather plano- 

 convex in shape, its postero- 

 medial surface being flat. The 

 lateral edge is sharper than the 

 medial, owing to its correspond- 

 ence with the downward exten- 

 sion of the gluteal ridge and lower 

 down with the linea aspera. 



The shaft is very slightly curved 

 from before backward, but the 

 curve is diffused over the lower 



Fig. 51. The Monte Hermoso femur. (Photographs from original.) 



half of the bone, while a bend backward above the middle, charac- 

 teristic in general of human and to a less degree of other primate 



