MCGEE] THE SERI SKULL 141* 



ably authentic cranium of the entire skeleton with two skulls ])reserved 

 in the American Museum of Natural History, viz, No. 09/84, designated 

 as a skull of a Tiburon mound-builder, and No. 99/85, labeled as having 



the complete skeleton. Subsequently tliis specimen also was put in Dv Hrdlicka's hands (at his 

 request), au»l was kindly examined, with the results recorded in the following letter: 



Mahcii 20, 1900. 

 Professor W J MpGee, 



Bureau of American Ethnologi/, Washmgton, D. C. 



Dear Sie: The skull wliich yuii submitted to me for examination shows the following : 



The skull is that of a male between 40 and 50 years of age. The facial parts and a portion of the 

 left temporal bone are wanting; otherwise the specimen shows nothing pathologic. There are signs 

 thatthe skull belonged t() a very muscular imlividual. The occipital depressions, ridges, and protu- 

 berance are very marked, and the temporal rulgea approach to within 1 7 cm. on the left and 2.3 cm. 

 on the right of the sagittal sutni'e. The whole skull is rather heavy and massive; thickness of parie- 

 tal bones 4-S mm. 



The sliape of the skull is unusual. The frontal region is rather broad (frontal diameter, minimum, 

 9.7; frontal diameter, maximum, 12.1 em.}, but quite flat and sloping. Frontal ridges wanting (broken 

 away). 



The sagittal region is elevated into a crest which begins 4 cm. posteriorly from the bregma, is most 

 marked at the vertex, and proceeds in two tapering diverging crura to the lambdoid suturt'. The 

 whole vertex region is considerably elevated and forms a blunt cone, which is particularly notice- 

 able when the skull is viewed from the side. 



The temporoparietal regions are moderately convex and expanded anteriorly, but become flattened 

 and gradually narrow toward the parietal bosses. The parietal bones measure each 11 cm. along the 

 coronal, hut only 8.8 cm. along the lambdoid suture. The gradual tapering of the parietal regions 

 from their middh- backward continues on the occipital bone up to the inion, and gives the norma ver- 

 ticalis of the skull a]ieculiar ajipearance. 



The occipital region, as a whole, does not protrude much, as in true do)iehocei)hals, but it shows a 

 luominent broad crest, lornicil b\ the two sujjeriiir semicircular lines and the region between them. 

 The extreme occipital jirotuberance is ])ronouneed and shows signs of strong muscular attachments. 

 A small distance above the ioramen magnum, on each side of the median line, is a very marked 

 depression, surmounted by a dull ridge. 



Of the mastoids, the right has been broken olf and the left is danmgeil. hut they do not seem to have 

 been of extraordinary size. 



The base of the skull is fairly well preserved and shows the following characters: The basilar pro- 

 cess and the petrous portions of the temporal bones are more massive than usual. The glenoid lossai 

 are broad and of fair depth. The styloids are quite diminutive {right 0.7, left 0.5 cm. long). The 

 fnranien magnum is hexagonal in outline; it is 4 -I cm. long. 3.4 cm. wide; its ])lane is inidined back- 

 wards in sucli a way that its antero-posterior diameter prolonged would toucli about the lower bor- 

 ders of the nasal aperture. 



The cranial cavit}' can be weU inspected through the opening caused by injury. The internal sur- 

 face of the frontal bone shows but very few traces of brain impressions. There are several large 

 impressions ou each parietal bone, and deep, though rather small, fossa; for the extremities of the 

 occipital lobes on the occipital bone. The superior border of the dorsum sella? shows in the middle 

 a rounded notch about 3 mm. deep. 



The serration of the sutures is throughout very simple. 



Meaiiu res —The glabellooccipital length and maximum widih of the skull can not be accurately 

 determined on account <tf injuries to the bones. Tliey amount, respectively, to about 18.8 and 14 cm., 

 giving the cephalic index of about 74.4 (moderate dcdichocephaly). The basion-bregma height is 14.1 

 cm. ; basion-vertex, 11.8 cm. ; basion-ohelion, 13.6 cm. ; baaion-lambda, 12.2 cm. The two more anterior 

 of these measures chararlerize the skull as a rather high one. The two more posterior measures 

 show the rapid downward slope of the posterior half of the sagittal region. The maximum circum- 

 ference of the skull (above the ridges) is 52 cm. 



The bregmalauibda arc measures 13.3, the lambdaopisthion arc 12.2 cm. Diameter between the 

 asterions--.l(>.7 cm. 



If the skull under examination is considered from a purely evolutionary standpoint, it must be 

 pronounced to be in many points inferior to the average white and even to the majority of Indian 

 crania. An anthropologiial ind<-ntili( ation of the specimen is difhcult, for tiie reason that we are still 

 very imperfectly acquainted with the crauiohigy of the peoples of southwestern .United States and 

 northern Mexico. From what we know of the crania of the Pima, and the extinct Santa Barbara, 

 Santa Catalina, etc, Californians, it is jmssible to say that the individual whose skull is here 

 reported upon may have belonged to a people physically related to either of these groups. The skull 

 is very distinct from that of an Apache. The female Seri cranium examined by me before does not 

 show certain of the peculiarities of this specimen; nevertheless it is very possible that both crania 

 belonged to individuals of the same tribe. 



Ales HrdliCka. 



