THE BIRTHPLACE OF MAN 597 
and later the camels and horses, found conditions uncongenial and. 
migrated to Asia, a more favored region. 
It has often been assumed that man must have originated in a 
warm or tropical climate, to account for the loss of his hairy covering. 
But I quite agree with Dr. Matthew, that the loss of hair is almost 
conclusive evidence of his origin in a temperate or cold climate where 
he found clothing necessary to protect himself from the inclemencies 
of the weather. We know of no mammals or birds losing their pelage 
or plumage because of tropical conditions, though some may have lost 
their hair because of vermin. 
Taking all these facts and conclusions into consideration it seems 
to me that such evidence as paleontology can at the present time offer 
points toward central Asia as the birthplace of Homo, and that the 
time of his origin, as a family, was late Miocene or early Pliocene. 
If Pithecanthropus be really a true hominid, then we already have evi- 
dence of his origin in the Asiatic region. Be it as it may, I confidently 
believe that within a very few years the discovery of indubitable links 
in man’s ancestry will be made in central Asia, in China or northern 
India. Perhaps to no region of the world does the paleontologist look 
with more eager expectation for the solution of many profound prob- 
lems in the phylogenies and migrations of the mammals than to central 
and eastern Asia. That there are remains of many extinct vertebrates 
awaiting discovery there in the late Tertiary and Pleistocene deposits 
has been made evident by the many fragments brought to light by 
explorers and travelers. 
A field second to none other in the importance and richness of the 
results to be expected awaits the paleontologist in Asia. 
THE RELATION OF PALEONTOLOGY TO THE HISTORY 
OF MAN, WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO 
THE AMERICAN PROBLEM 
By Prorgssor JOHN C. MERRIAM 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
Ce in its broadest aspect, the most important relation 
of paleontology to the study of man concerns the support which 
it gives to the general theory of evolution of the organic world. If it 
be held that we have reason to believe man, with all his highest 
qualities, a product of evolution out of so-called lower animal types, 
then it becomes necessary to have a full knowledge of the history of 
man and of the forms preceding him, in order to understand the origin 
and the true nature of man’s fundamental characteristics as they exist 
to-day. On the other hand, if there is reason to believe that man as 
