DIFFICULTIES OF RECONSTRUCTION 351 
transverse section is shown. 1 have supposed that the 
basilar process is of rather more than average widths 
26 mm. In such a skull, with great massive bones, this 
bar was probably considerably above the dimensions seen 
in modern skulls. From the dimensions of the petrous 
part of the temporal bone we infer that the width of the 
Piltdown skull was at least equal to that of either of the 
two skulls shown for comparison in fig. 121— about 
1 50 mm. We have thus an assurance that the indications 
CTiven us by the occipital bone concerning the width 
and size of the Piltdown skull are well founded. The 
Fig. 121.— Reconstruction of the left half of the Piltdown skull compared with a 
similar section of the Gibraltar and of the Dartford skull. 
massiveness of the petrous bone, and its degree of obliquity 
as regards the transverse axis of the base of the skull, are 
primitive or simian marks (fig. 120) ; yet in this respect 
the Piltdown skull is less simian than the Gibraltar skull 
(fig. 121). 
A study of the occipital aspect of the Piltdown skull 
brings before us another feature in which it resembles 
those of the modern type. When viewed from behind, 
the heads of men of the modern type give the impression 
of being compressed from side to side (fig. 117). In 
that extinct species of man — Homo neanderthalensis — the 
head was compressed in an exactly opposite direction, 
