4:1 6 Scien tific Intelligence. 



16. Per Unterkiefer des Homo Heidelberg ensis aits den Sanden 

 von Matter bei Heidelberg. Ein Beitrag zur Palaontologie des 

 Menschen von Otto Schoetensack. Mit 13 Tafeln, davon 10 in 

 Licktdruck. Leipzig, 1908 (Wilhelm Engelmann). — In this vol- 

 ume Dr. Schoetensack tells the story of a remarkable discovery 

 and interprets its meaning. The find was made the 21st of 

 October, 1907, in a sand-pit near the village of Mauer, ten kilo- 

 meters southeast of Heidelberg. Mauer lies in the valley of the 

 Elsenz, a tributary of the Neckar. The human lower jaw came 

 from the so-called Mauer sands at a depth of 24*10 meters from 

 the surface and '87 meters from the bottom of the deposit. The 

 first 10*92 meters at the top of the section are composed of loess 

 which is classed as upper Quaternary, while the rest of the section 

 is lower Quaternary. The horizon from which the human lower 

 jaw came has furnished other fossil mammalian remains including 

 Felis spelcea, Ursus arvernensis, Gervus latifrons, Bison, Equus, 

 Rhinoceros etruscus and Elephas antiquus. 



The lower jaw was intact, but the stroke of the workman's 

 shovel caused the two halves to separate along the line of sym- 

 physis. The absence of chin first attracts one's attention. The 

 symphysial region is somewhat gorilloid, while the ascending 

 ramus suggests rather the Gibbon. The teeth, however, are. dis- 

 tinctly human and are relatively small in comparison to the size 

 of the jaw. I have noted the same phenomenon in a collection 

 of recent crania from Gazelle Peninsula, New Britain.* The 

 dentition of Homo Heidelberg ensis represents a youthful stage in 

 the dentition of the modern European. That is to say, in the 

 ontogeny of the latter, a stage representing adult dental char- 

 acters when the race was young is now reached at the age of from 

 nine to fourteen. 



The ramus is characterized by its unusual breadth, 60 mm , as 

 opposed to an average of 37 for recent examples. The processus 

 coronoideus is exceedingly blunt and the incisura mandibulse 

 correspondingly shallow. The condyloid process has a large 

 articular surface due to an increased antero-posterior diameter, 

 since the transverse diameter is relatively short. In general 

 appearance the lower jaw from Mauer resembles the restoration 

 by Dubois of the lower jaw of Pithecanthropus erectusj except 

 in the dentition, to which Dubois gives a more anthropoid aspect. 



The characters in the lower jaw of the Neandertal race, or 

 so-called Homo primigenius, are well known through discoveries 

 at La Naulette, Spy, Krapina, etc. That the latter race is inter- 

 mediate between recent man and Homo Heidelbergensis, a com- 

 parison of the specimens in question furnishes ample proof. The 

 lower jaw from Mauer is, therefore, pre-Neandertaloid. That it 

 also exhibits pre-anthropoid characters gives it a fundamental 

 position in the line of human evolution. 



The remains of the Neandertal race are found in association 

 with a Mousterian industry. The latter occurs in deposits that 



*Amer. Anthropol. , N. S., iv, 474, 1902. 

 \ This Journal; p. 475, June, 1896. 



