NOVEJIBEE 27, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



767 



The human remains in question, consisting 

 of a nearly complete human lower jaw, form 

 the subject of a paper just published by Pro- 

 fessor G. Schwalbe'- of Strassburg. Professor 

 Hans Virchow was to have given a demonstra- 

 tion of the specimen before the German Con- 

 gress of Anthropology at Hildesheim last 

 August, but the congress was not held on 

 account of the war. The discovery was first 

 brought to my attention through a letter from 

 Dr. L. Pfeiflfer, of Weimar, under date of July 

 20, 1914. Like much of the archeological 

 material previously found at Taubach and 

 Ehringsdorf this lower jaw is now the property 

 of the museum at Weimar. Because of its 

 double association with that city, Schwalbe 

 proposes to call it the Weimar lower jaw. 



The lower jaw was found on May 8, 1914, 

 at a depth of 11.9 m. below the surface in the 

 lower travertine, 2.9 m. below the so-called 

 Pariser loess. It is from the Kampfe quarry 

 at Ehringsdorf and was brought to light by 

 means of a blast. Under the circumstances it 

 was fortunate indeed that the lower jaw 

 suffered no worse. All the teeth are intact 

 and in situ save the two right incisors (in 

 their place is a small mass of travertine con- 

 taining a univalve shell). Both halves of the 

 body are practically complete. The right as- 

 cending ramus is in part present; although 

 not enough remains to save the mandibular 

 angle, the coronoid and condyloid processes, 

 and the mandibular or sigmoid notch. The 

 left ascending ramus is completely gone. 



A number of remarkable features are com- 

 bined in the Weimar lower jaw. The absence 

 of a chin is doubly emphasized because of the 

 pronounced alveolar prognathism as shown in 

 the figures, a condition not found in the lower 

 jaws of Krapina and La Chapelle-aux-Saints, 

 nor even in that of Homo heidelhergensis. 

 Closely related to the alveolar prognathism is 

 the sloping nature of the inner surface of the 

 jaw in the region of the symphysis, region 

 called by Schwalbe planum alveolare. Li all 

 other lower jaws of the Neandertal type a 



1 ' ' Ilber einen bei Ehringsdorf in der Nahe von 

 Weimar gefundenen Unterkiefer des Homo primi- 

 genius," Anat. Anseiger, Band 47, 337-345, 1914. 



median line in this field is much more nearly 

 vertical. Below this planum alveolare is a 

 spinous area but no distinct spines for the 

 attachment of the genioglossal and geniohyoid 

 muscles. Neither is there the customary ridge 

 on the inner surface of each corpus for the 

 attachment of the mylohyoid muscles. The 

 absence of this mylohyoid ridge is even more 

 marked than in the well-known mandibles of 

 the Neandertal type. 



The foramen mentale is unusually large. It 

 is directly beneath the first molar (similar to 

 the situation in Homo primigenius) ; while in 

 recent man this foramen is located farther 

 forward beneath the second premolar. In the 

 Heidelberg lower jaw it is also large but situ- 

 ated further forward than in the specimen 

 from Weimar. 



Schwalbe lays special stress on the narrow- 

 ness of the arch of the Weimar jaw. The 

 breadth between the inner faces of the third 

 molars is 48 mm. ; the distance from posterior 

 surface of the third molar to the anterior mar- 

 gin of the median incisor is 69 mm. The 

 index derived from these two measures in the 

 chimpanzee is 54.6. In the Weimar jaw this 

 index is 69.5 ; while it is much larger in other 

 known fossil human lower jaws: Heidelberg 

 75.Y, Krapina 80 and La Chapelle 100. 

 Schwalbe admits however that the low index 

 of the Weimar jaw might be due in part at 

 least to post-mortem deformation. 



The teeth are much worn. Since the pre- 

 molars are less worn than the canines, one is 

 led to conclude that the points of the canines 

 stood above the level of the premolars. There 

 is no diastema between the canines and the 

 first premolars. A notable feature is the rela- 

 tive smallness of the third molars. This un- 

 expected condition proves that the tendency of 

 the third molars to disappear is of much more 

 ancient origin than other known jaws of the 

 Neandertal and earlier types have led us to 

 suppose. 



Without hesitation Schwalbe places the 

 Weimar lower jaw in the Neandertal group, 

 for which group he proposed some years ago 

 the name Homo primigenius. In. the pre- 

 liminary paper he does not describe the cul- 



