SKELETAL REMAINS SUGGESTING OR ATTRIBUTED 
TO EARLY MAN IN NORTH AMERICA 
By Ares HrpriéKa 
I—INTRODUCTION 
According to current classification of geological time, the Ceno- 
zoic era (the era of modern life) is divided into two periods, the 
Tertiary and the Quaternary. The former, which is the older, 
comprises three subdivisions, Kocene, Miocene, and Phocene, and 
the latter two subdivisions, Pleistocene and Recent. These periods 
are indicated in figure 1 in the order of the formations representing 
them. 
Man made his appearance in the Old World probably during the 
Tertiary period through differentiation from the primates, the class 
of animals to which he presents 
the closest structural analogies. RECENT 
: : = QUATERNARY 
Primates of the higher forms were PEETSTOCEME<CLACIAL 
not found in Amenica s- they \ex-~ <*< iene 
isted only in the warmer parts of  & 
; ; 2 > 
Asia, Africa, and Europe, and it & MIOCENE 
TERTIARY 
is there that we must look for the 
first traces of man’s appearance. 
Accepting this view, it follows 
that America was peopled by im- 
migration from the Old World, 
which could not have taken place until after great multiplication and 
wide distribution of the human species and the development of some 
degree of culture. This implies a vastly later date than that which 
must be assigned to man’s origin. A wide dispersion of the race over 
the earth could hardly have taken place before the later stages of the 
Cenozoic era. 
In considering the question of the appearance of man in America, 
special interest attaches to the Pleistocene, during several phases of 
which period man is known to have existed in central and western 
Europe; there is absolutely no indication that he reached the Ameri- 
can continent before that time. The American Pleistocene, which is 
synchronous with the Glacial period, is marked by certain well-known 
geological deposits, which are particularly abundant and character- 
9 
Fie. 1.—Geological formations concerned in 
human history. 
