156 
THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN 
form an almost straight line — there is little or no bending. 
In anthropoids the bending becomes apparent. In fig. 54 
the degree of bending at the pituitary angle in a gorilla 
is represented ; it amounts to 142°. Some years ago 
Professor G. L. Sera ^ drew attention to the fact that 
this angle is very open in the Gibraltar skull — the only 
Neanderthal specimen in which the base is preserved. 
The angle is almost as great as in the gorilla, 140° 
(fig. 54). In skulls of the modern type it varies from 
120° to 130°. There can be no doubt that the wide, 
OCC CONDYLE 
Fig. 54. — Superimposed tracings of the basi-cranial axis of the skull of a gorilla, 
of the Gibraltar cranium, and of a modern English skull, to show the 
extent of the pituitary angle. 
open angle is the primitive or simian one ; in this respect 
the Gibraltar skull is very primitive. We can see, 
further, by a reference to figs. 53 and 54, that the wide, 
open angle is related to the downward flattening- — to 
the degree of platycephalism — of the skull. A widely 
open pituitary angle, as in the Gibraltar skull, tends 
to pitch the face forwards, thus giving room for move- 
ments of the mandible. It has the same effect as a 
backward tilt of the head. The prepituitary part of the 
cranial base represents the axis of the maxillary part of 
1 " Nuove Osservazione ed Induzioni 
Antropologia, 1909, vol. xxxix. p. 5. 
ml Cranio Gibraltar," Archiv 
