THE HUMAN DENTITION 147 



MODERN MAN 



All human races of today are obviously different from Hei- 

 delberg Man in possessing greater tongue space and smaller 

 jaws though not necessarily smaller teeth. They are unlike 

 Neandertal Man in the possession of a chin. Their features 

 recall those of H. aurignacensis, a long-headed European of 

 the Glacial period. 



It is an interesting fact that the long-headed or dolicoce- 

 phalic type of Man has always been pre-eminent as a sea rover 

 and we shall take as our first example the skull of a native 

 Tasmanian (Fig. 52), a type who could only have attained his 

 final distribution after considerable travel, as representing the 

 most primitive modern race though recently become extinct. 

 Unfortunately the dentition is not very complete and no fea- 

 tures of the incisor and canine teeth can be directly noted. 

 These teeth do not greatly differ however from the correspond- 

 ing teeth of other human races and therefore we shall not pause 

 over these or indeed over the premolars which resemble those 

 of H. aurignacensis rather than of Neandertal Man. It is 

 the molars to which attention is drawn at the moment. All have 

 well-marked necks, parallel unfused roots and large crowns. 

 The total length of grinding surface of the three mandibular 

 molars is as great as in Heidelberg Man or in H.. mouste- 

 riensis. It is considerably greater than in H. aurignacen- 

 sis. The first molar is actually longer than that of Heidel- 

 berg Man but the second is shorter. In the maxilla we find 

 likewise that the total molar surface is longer than in H. 

 aurignacensis but is slightly shorter than that of the Neander- 

 taler. The first maxillary molar is again the largest. This 

 increase in size, usually relative but in certain instances actual, 

 is characteristic of modern Man. Typically human features such 

 as the angle between the axes of the first and second mandibu- 

 lar molars need not be dwelt upon since they have already 

 been emphasized in the descriptions of fossil Man. When we 

 look at the individual teeth we note several features which 



