282 



PRIMATES 



Only the skull-cap, a tooth and the femur of Pithecanthropus are known. 

 As these specimens, however, are characteristic portions of the skeleton, they 

 are quite sufficient to give an idea of the organisation of this animal. 

 Notwithstanding the large size of the skull, the cranial roof has neither 

 sagittal crest nor temporal ridge. Consequently, the superior canine and the 

 inferior third premolar functioning with it were without doubt not much larger 

 than the second incisor. This character alone would be sufficient to exclude 

 Pithecanthropus from the Simiidae (Anthropomorphidae) and to bring it in close 

 relation to the genus Homo. The form and structure of the third superior 

 molar are likewise occasionally found in Man but never occur in the 

 Simiidae. The remarkably long femur also can only be compared with 

 that of Man, from which it differs only in the more circular cross-section of 

 the shaft, and the weaker development of the condylar region. While many 



German anthropologists are inclined 

 to look upon Pithecanthropus merely 

 as a huge Hijlohates, Turner, Topinard 

 and Manouvrier lay stress upon its 

 great similarity to Man. In the 

 structure of the skull of Pithec- 

 anthropus, Schwalbe also finds pro- 

 found differences from that in the 

 Simiidae (Anthropomorphs). The 

 question whether Pithecanthropus may 

 be the direct ancestor of the genus 

 Homo, however, cannot yet be 

 answered with certainty, and the 

 geological age of this form is not 

 exactly known. 



Eoanthropus A. S. Woodward ^ 

 (Fig. 367). Cranium essentially 

 human, without inflated brow-ridges, 

 but depressed and wide at the occiput ; cranial bones very thick, and consist- 

 ing of fine spongy tissue. Size of brain at least 1300 cubic centimetres. 

 Lower jaw with retreating bony chin, produced below into a thin flange as in 

 apes. Canine teeth interlocking, the permanent lower canine shaped like the 

 lower milk-canine of Homo; lower molars longer than broad, with a fifth 

 tubercle at the hinder border. E. dawsoni A. S. Woodward, from an early 

 Pleistocene gravel at Piltdown, near Uckfield, Sussex, associated with pre- 

 Chellean flint implements. The type specimen consists of the greater part of 

 a cranium, with isolated nasal bones, mandibular ramus, and canine tooth 

 found close together in a gravel pit. A second specimen is represented by 

 pieces of frontal and occipital bones and a lower molar tooth from another 

 locality near Piltdown. Human teeth from the Tufa of Taubach, Weimar, 

 may also belong to Eoanthropus. 



Homo L. Linnaeus placed Man in the order Primates and separated him 

 only generically from the apes. In physical respects he is closely allied to 



^ Baivson, C, and Woodward, A. S., Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. Ixix. 1913 ; vol. Ixx. 

 1914 ; vol. Ixxi. 1915 (bone implement). — Woodward, A. S., loc. cit., vol. Ixxiii. 1917 (second 

 skull). Guide to Fossil Eemains of Man, British Museum, 3rd. ed., \^2Z.—Oshorn, E. F., 

 Natural History (New York), vol. xxi., 1921, p. 577. 



Eoanthropus dawsoni A. S. Woodward. Lowest 

 Pleistocene gravel, Piltdown, Sussex. Restoration of 

 skull and lower jaw. 1/4- (After A. S. Woodward.) 



