610 



PSYCHOZOIC ERA— AGE OF MAN— RECENT EPOCH. 



agmitic crust. This association unmistakably indicates the middle or 

 latter part of the Quaternary period. 



Neanderthal Skull. — In a cave at Neanderthal, near Dusseldorf, was 

 found a very remarkable human skeleton, which has greatly excited the 



interest of scientific men. The 



limb-bones are large, and the pro- 

 tuberances for muscular attach- 

 ments very prominent ; the skull 

 very thick, very low in the arch, 

 and very prominent in the brows. 

 It has been supposed by some to be 

 an intermediate form between 

 man and the ape ; but, according 

 to the best authority, it is in no 

 respect intermediate, but truly 

 human. It is probably the skel- 

 eton of a man exceptionally mus- 

 cular in body and low in intelli- 

 gence. The evidences of antiqui- 

 ty are of the same kind, but less 

 complete than in the case of the 

 Engis skull, though it probably 

 belongs to the same or, perhaps, 

 even an earlier epoch. The Engis 

 skull, on the other hand, is a well- 

 shaped average human skull. A 

 figure of the Engis skull is given 



Fig. 973.— Engis Skull, reduced (after Lyell;. 



Fig. 974. — Comparison of Forms of Skulls: a, 

 European; b. the Neanderthal man; c, a 

 chimpanzee (after Lyell). 



above (Fig. 973), and a comparison in outline of the Neanderthal with 

 the ape and European (Fig. 974). 



Recently there have been found in a cave at Spy, Belgium, two nearly 

 complete skeletons, which seem to be of the same type as the Neander- 

 thal man, and with the latter are supposed to belong to a distinct and 

 very early race. They are believed to have been men of short stature, 

 broad-shouldered, bowed thighs, slightly-bent knees, and semi-erect 

 posture, but nevertheless distinctly human. The skeletons were found 

 associated with the remains of all the characteristic Quaternary ani- 

 mals and implements of the rudest kind. Their age was either Cham- 

 plain or interglacial.* 



Mentone Skeleton. — Several years ago an almost perfect skeleton 

 of a Palaeolithic man was found in a cave at Mentone, near Nice. It 

 is that of a tall, well-formed man, with average or more than aver- 

 age-sized skull, and a facial angle of 85°. The antiquity of this man 



Nature, vol. xxxv, p. 564, 1887. 



