July 16, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



85 



town in what is called " Llano de la Formiga." 

 Here in April, 1887, he encountered a human 

 lower jaw embedded in the hard travertine at 

 a depth of from four to five meters. Fortu- 

 nately Eoura left the fragile jaw, almost com- 

 plete, in its stone matrix and turned the block 

 over to a Bafiolas pharmacist, Don Pedro 

 Alsius, who undertook the preparation of the 

 specimen by the careful removal of the matrix 

 from the bone. The relic is still in the pri- 

 vate collection of Alsius, or rather of his fam- 

 ily, for he died early in 1915. Although he 

 published nothing concerning the specimen, 

 Alsius recognized its archaic character. The 

 first printed notice seems to have been that 

 in " Anuari del Institut d'Estudis Catalans," 

 Barcelona, 1909, by Professor Manuel Cazurro. 

 Another note by Professor E. Harle appeared 

 in 1912 in the Boletin del Instituto Oeologico 

 de Espana (Madrid). Now comes an exhaus- 

 tive study entitled "La Mandibula Neander- 

 taloide de Bafiolas," by Professors E. Her- 

 nandez-Pacheco and Hugo Obermaier.-"^ 



On account of its fragile character no at- 

 tempt has been made to separate the lower jaw 

 wholly from its matrix. Its inner surfaces are 

 therefore not accessible. The outer surfaces 

 including a full set of sixteen teeth are laid 

 bare. The bone is of the same color as the 

 matrix and highly fossilized. The right side 

 is fairly well preserved. The condyloid proc- 

 ess however is entirely gone. The anterior 

 portion of the coronoid process is nearly com- 

 plete; but its highest point can not be defi- 

 nitely fixed. A small piece is missing from the 

 angle at the junction of the horizontal with 

 the ascending ramus, but its negative is so 

 well preserved by the tufa that the gonion can 

 be determined with accuracy. 



The left half of the jaw was broken in seven 

 pieces when discovered. These have been suc- 

 cessfully united. But owing to a very early 

 break the whole left half is shoved outward 

 and backward to a slight degree, a defect which 

 can not be remedied. The left ascending 

 ramus is not in so good a condition as the 



1 ' ' Comision de Investigaeiones Paleontologicas 

 y Prghistorieas, " memoria numero 6, Madrid 

 (Hipodromo), 1915. 



right. While the coronoid and condyloid proc- 

 esses are missing, the transverse diameter of 

 the latter can be measured because of the tufa 

 negative. Nearly the whole of the condyle 

 lies inside the plane of the outer surface of the 

 ascending ramus if extended, as is the case 

 with the lower jaw of La Chapelle-aux-Saints. 

 The neck of the condyle is short; the coro- 

 noid process, low and blunt as seen in the 

 nearly intact right ramus. The ascending 

 branches are relatively low and broad. The 

 body of the lower jaw is also low but robust. 

 The chin is at least rudimentary if not wholly 

 lacking; the angle of symphysis is 85°, placing 

 the man of Bafiolas in the same class with 

 that of La Ferrassie. In some Neandertal ex- 

 amples the absence of chin is more pronounced 

 and the angle of symphysis correspondingly 

 greater as seen in the following table from 

 Boule : 



Recent man (individual variations) . . 57° to 93° 



Lower jaw of La Ferrassie 85° 



Lower jaw of Bafiolas 85° 



Lower jaw of La Naulette 94° 



Lower jaw G and H of Krapina .... 99° 



Lower jaw of La Chapelle-aux-Saints. 104° 



Lower jaw of Mauer 105° 



Lower jaw of Malarnaud 105° to 110° 



Lower jaw of Spy 106° to 111° 



Lower jaw of the Gorilla 105° 



Lower jaw of the Chimpanzee 115° 



Lower jaw of the Orang 124° 



The lower jaw of Bafiolas belonged to a 

 male, who had reached the age of about forty 

 years. Morphologically it falls within the 

 Neandertal group, being the second discovery 

 of this type in Spain. Unfortunately it was 

 associated neither with other skeletal remains 

 nor with artifacts. The travertine and the 

 lower jaw itself are undoubtedly Pleistocene. 

 If not so archaic as the Gibraltar skull, it 

 might well be as old as the remains from 

 La Ferrassie, which were associated with a 

 typical Mousterian industry. 



George Grant MacOurdy 



Yale University, 

 New Haven, Conn. 



