DIFFICULTIES OF RECONSTRUCTION 2S3 
The drawings of the occipital aspect of anthropoid 
skulls bring out certain other instructive characters. In 
the gorilla and chimpanzee the lambdoid suture — the 
line of junction between the occipital and parietal bones 
— is almost symmetrical as regards the two sides. In the 
Gibraltar skull we see the same kind of asymmetry in 
this suture as in modern races, and as in the Piltdown 
skull — an asymmetry due to the greater extent of the left 
half of the occipital bone. At the present time we 
attribute that preponderance to the larger size of the left 
occipital lobe of the brain, and indirectly to right- 
handedness. At the beginning of the Pleistocene period 
— probably much earlier — specialisation already had 
appeared as a distinguishing feature of the human 
brain. 
Piltdown man had not only the flat-sided head-form of 
modern man, but he also held and balanced his head 
much as we carry ours. This we believe was not the 
primitive method. Adult anthropoids are bull-necked — 
the head is deeply implanted in their strong, thick necks. 
In modern man, as in Piltdown man, the head is balanced 
on the neck ; there is a sharp demarcation at the junction 
of the neck with the head. In newly born anthropoids 
the neck is slender and the head relatively large. As the 
ape passes into childhood the neck grows in thickness, 
while the head — as regards size of brain — remains almost 
stationary. As the neck grows, it encloses and spreads 
over the occipital region. In fig. 123, A, B, the area 
of neck-attachment is demarcated by shading. In the 
young gorilla the attachment has extended upwards 
until it has reached a little above the level of the lateral 
blood-sinuses. In the chimpanzee, an older animal, the 
neck has extended upwards nearly an inch above the 
sinuses. In the Gibraltar skull, as in all Neanderthal 
skulls, the condition is that seen in the young gorilla (see 
figs. 122 and 123), but in the Piltdown skull, and in 
nearly all modern skulls, the attachment of the neck 
never reaches even the level of the lateral sinuses (see 
figs. 102 and 117). In this respect the Piltdown race 
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