354 
THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN 
corresponds with modern races and differs from the 
Neanderthal species and anthropoids. 
One other remarkable feature is seen in the Piltdown 
skull, in connection with the fixation of the head to the 
neck. In the young chimpanzee the mastoid area of the 
temporal bone on each side is growing outwards into a 
thick, wing-Hke process to give an increased area for 
attachment of certain of the neck muscles (fig. 123, B). In 
the Gibraltar skull the same area forms merely a flattened 
knob — a condition which may be described as partially 
simian (fig. 122). In the Piltdown skull we see, as in 
modern races, a pyramiidal mastoid process projecting 
YOUNG GORILLA 
CHIMPANZEE 
Fig. 123. — A. Hinder aspect of the skull of a young gorilla about three years 
old. B. The same aspect of the skull of a female chimpanzee about twelve 
years old. 
downwards behind the ear. It is a special adaptation to 
the balancing of the head on the neck. I have always 
regarded the wide attachment of the neck to the skull 
as a provision for enabling an animal to exert its bodily 
strength through its head and jaws. A full consideration 
of the lightly balanced head of the Piltdown man, with 
great jaws and apparently projecting canines, on the one 
hand, and Neanderthal man, with his closely set head, 
strong jaws not furnished with fighting canines, renders 
this view no longer tenable. There seems to be no 
necessary correlation between projecting canines and firm 
fixation of the head. 
In this chapter 1 may seem to have entered into too 
