356 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 374. 



transport. The limbs evidently rested cliiefly 

 on the carpals and tarsals, the phalanges and 

 metapodials being extraordinarily reduced 

 with the exception of the metatarsal of the 

 fifth digit. The feet as a whole are compara- 

 ble to those of the wombats, there being evi- 

 dences of syndactylism and reduction in the 

 second and third digits. A limb of Oenyornis, 

 the great struthious bird from this deposit, has 

 recently been sent to the American Museum. 



TRANSFERENCE OP SECONDARY SEXUAL CHARAC- 

 TERS FROM MALES TO FEMALES. 



In this brief but important paper, Dr. C. I. 

 Forsyth-Major* reviews Darwin's statement in 

 the 'Descent of Man,' as to the probability 

 that horns of all kinds, and canine tusks 

 even when they are equally developed in 

 the two sexes, were primarily acquired by 

 the male in order to conquer other males 

 and have been transferred more or less 

 completely to the female. Darwin's inference 

 did not rest upon paleontological evidence, and 

 Dr. Major therefore reviews the evolution of 

 the families of Cervidse, Giraffidse, Bovidse and 

 Suidse, with the general conclusion that Dar- 

 win's inference was correct. He concludes 

 with the remark, "In our ovsm species the mod- 

 ern aspirations of women are to all appear- 

 ances incipient signs of the same natural law; 

 Physical and mental characters of man, orig- 

 inally acquired in the struggles of the males, 

 are apparently being slowly transferred to 

 women. They only require time for their full 

 evolution." 



HOMO NEANDERTHALENSIS A DISTINCT SPECIES. 



Professor G. SciiWALBEf publishes in the 

 proceedings of the Anatomisclie Gesellschaft 

 an exhaustive study of the famous Neander- 

 thal slaall, which he concludes as follows 4 "I 

 believe I have shown that the Neanderthal 

 skuU is distinguished by no small number of 

 characters which in many respects bring 

 it much nearer' that of the anthropoid apes 



* Geol. Mag., Dec. IV., Vol. VIII., 1901, pp. 241- 

 245. 



t ' Ueber die specifischen Merkmale dea Neander- 

 thalschiidels,' Verh. der Anat. Ges., XV. versamml. 

 in Bonn., 26-29 Mai, 1901, pp. 44-61, 8vo. Jena. 



t Translation and abstract. 



than that of man. I therefore regard the po- 

 sition of King and of Cope in designating 

 this as a type of a distinct species as entirely 

 justified. I follow in this respect the modern 

 practice of zoologists and paleontologists. 

 This species is by no means to be included 

 with the Paleolithic or Quaternary man; it is 

 an older form, which is to be compared only 

 with the skull of Spy, and the lower jaw found 

 at Naulette. Very probably these skulls be- 

 long to the lowest diluviiim, lying near the 

 limits of the Tertiary, although the possibility 

 must be admitted that H. Neanderthalensis 

 may represent a persistent lower race contem- 

 porary with the newer Pleistocene Homo sa- 

 piens." 



DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN THE SKULLS OF LEMURS 

 AND MONKEYS. 



Dr. C. I. FoRSYTH-MAJOR,* of the British 

 Museum, has recently been comparing in a 

 most exhaustive and critical manner the facial 

 region of the lemurs and monkeys, and has es- 

 pecially shown that the commonly accepted 

 view of the exposure of the lachrymal bone 

 upon the face as a primitive character is prob- 

 ably erroneous. This has been one of the most 

 frequently employed distinctions between le- 

 murs and monkeys. He proves that, on the 

 contrary, even in the supposedly ancestral In- 

 sectivora an exposed lachrymal and lachrymal 

 canal are not a common character. In the fossil 

 lemurs, Adapis shows the lachrymal bone and 

 duct within the orbit. Among existing types 

 the lachrymal is scarcely more frequent in the 

 lemurs than in the higher groups, and the 

 greatest knovm reduction of this bone occurs 

 within the lemurs. The author's conclusion is 

 that a great facial expansion of the lachrymal, 

 and particularly its extension beyond the fossa 

 lachrymalis is, in the lemurs, as well as in the 

 monkeys, not a primitive condition, but an 

 extreme specialization ; it can always be traced 

 back to an elongation of the facial cranium 

 necessitated by a more powerful dentition. In 

 the reviewer's opinions each elongation is not 

 secondary but primitive. 



* ' On some Characters of the Skull in the 

 Lemurs and Monkeys,' Proc. Zool. Sac, Feb. 19, 

 1901, pp. 129-153, PI. XI.-XIII. 



