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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 6$ 



region of origin on the skull and excessively heavy at the mandibular 

 end. That such an animal may have lived cannot be denied ; but noth- 

 ing so contrary to the facts which are now known need be believed 

 without the evidence of a jaw found in place. 



Two other features of the human skull, both connected with the 

 upright position of the body, and both represented by the Piltdown 

 fragments, have an important bearing on the question of the associa- 

 tion of the mandible with the braincase. One of these is the form of 

 the basicranial region, the other is that of the nasals. That human 

 skulls differ from those of other primates in the position of the 

 foramen magnum and the occipital condyles appears to have been first 

 clearly recognized by Daubenton, as long ago as 1764. 1 The subject 

 has received attention from many subsequent authors. 2 While some 

 individual variation in this respect is shown by recent man, and the 

 conditions may prove to be less pronounced in the Pleistocene Homo 

 neanderthalensis than in living members of the group, 3 the family 

 Hominidce is distinguished from all other mammals by the fact that 

 the occipital region is so produced behind the condyles, while at the 

 same time the anterior maxillary region (including front of lower jaw) 

 is so retracted, that the points of support on the erect upper portion 

 of the vertebral column stand essentially beneath the center of gravity 

 of the skull, thus balancing the head in its characteristic poise. As a 

 result of the maxillary retraction the nasal floor is shortened anteriorly 

 and the nasal aperture is made to open directly forward instead of 

 forward and upward. The nasal bones roofing this modified aperture 

 are normally thrown into a prominence unknown in any monkey or 

 great ape. Whether the maxillary retraction came about primarily as 

 part of a general readjustment of the skull to its upright attitude or 

 through other agencies, the fact remains that this character is not yet 

 known among primates except as part of a set of changes, one result 

 of which is to bring the point of cranial support to the position where 

 it affords the most effective balance. In all primates other than the 

 Hominidce the condyles lie behind the center of gravity and the head 

 is held in place on the oblique or horizontal anterior portion of the 



"Mem. Acad. Roy. Sci., Paris (1764), pp. 568-577- 1767. 



2 See, for instance, Huxley, Man's Place in Nature, p. 76, 1863 ; Owen Comp. 

 Anat. and Physiol. Vert., vol. 2, p. 554, 1866; Broca, Rev. d'Anthrop., Paris, 

 vol. 2, pp. 193-234, 1873 (reprint in Mem. d'Anthrop., vol. 4, pp. 595-641, 

 1883) ; Papillault, Bull. Soc. Anthrop., Paris, ser. 4, vol. 9, pp. 336-385- 



3 See Boule, Ann. de Paleont, vol. 6, pp. 156-159, 1911 (l'Homme fossile 

 de la Chapelle-aux-Saints, pp. 48-51). 



