 |
PAINTING HALL |
||||
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN
The partly known ancestors of the anthropoid apes
and the unknown ancestors of man probably originated among the forests and
flood-plains of southern Asia and early began to migrate westward into northern
Africa and western Europe.
As early as Oligocene
times a forerunner of the great apes (Propliopithecus), most nearly
resembling the gibbons, appears in the desert bordering the Fayum in northern
Egypt. Early in Miocene times true tree-living gibbons found their way into Europe
and continued throughout the Pliocene in the forms known as Pliopithecus and Pliohylobates, the latter being a true gibbon in its proportions; it ranged
northward into the present region of Germany. Another ape which early reached
Europe is the Dryopithecus; it is found in Miocene times in southern France;
the grinding-teeth suggest those of the orang, the jaw is deep and in some ways
resembles that of the Piltdown man. A third ape (Neopithecus) occurs in the
Lower Pliocene near Eppelsheim, in Germany, and is known only from a single
lower molar tooth, which recalls the dentition of Dryopithecus and more
remotely that of Homo. In the Pliocene of the Siwalik hills of Asia is found Palaeopithecus,
a generalized form which is believed to be related to the chimpanzee, the
gorilla, and the gibbon; the upper premolars resemble those of man.
None of these fossil
anthropoids either of Europe or of Asia can be regarded as ancestral to man,
although both Neopithecus and Dryopithecus have been placed in or near the
line of human ancestry by such high authorities as Branco and Gaudry. When
Dryopithecus was first discovered by Lartet, Gaudry considered it to be by far
the most manlike of all the apes, even attributing to it sufficient
intelligence for the working of flints, but fuller
Among these fossil
anthropoids, as well as among the four living forms, we discover no evidence of
direct relationship to man but very strong evidence of descent from the same
ancestral stock. These proofs of common ancestry, which have already been
observed in the existing races of man, become far more conspicuous in the
ancient Palaeolithic races; in fact, we cannot interpret the anatomy of the men
of the Old Stone Age without
The gibbon is the
most primitive of living apes in its skull and dentition, but the most
specialized in the length of its arms and its other extreme adaptations to
arboreal life. As in the other anthropoids, the face is abbreviated, the narial
region is narrow, i. e., catarrhine, and the brain-case is widened, but the top
of the skull is smooth, and the forehead lacks the prominent ridges above the
orbits; thus the profile of the skull of
the gibbon
is more human than that of the other anthropoid apes. When on the ground the
gibbon walks erect and is thus afforded the free use of its arms and
independent movements of its fingers. In the brain there is a striking development
of the centres of sight, touch, and hearing. It is these characteristics of the
modern gibbon which preserve with relatively slight changes
the type of the original ancestor of man, as noted by Elliot Smith.
The limbs of the
orang are less elongated and less extremely specialized for arboreal life than
those of the gibbon but more so than those of the chimpanzee and the gorilla.
The skull is rounded and of great vertical height, with broad, bony ridges
above the orbits and a great median crest on top of the skull in old males. The
lower jaw of the orang is stout and deep, and, although used as a fighting
weapon, the canine tusks are much
In the chimpanzee we
observe the very prominent bony ridges above the eyes, like those in the Trinil
and Neanderthal races of men. Of all the anthropoid apes the lower jaw of the
chimpanzee most nearly
resembles that of. the Piltdown man. The prognathous or protruding tooth rows
and receding chin suggest those in the Heidelberg, Piltdown, and Neanderthal
races. When the chimpanzee is walking the arms reach down below the
level of the knees, whereas in the higher races of man they reach only half-way
down the thighs.
Thus, the fore limb,
although much shorter than that of the gibbon, is relatively longer than that
of any human race, recent or ancient. We observe also in the walking chimpanzee that the upper part
of the leg, the thigh-bone, or femur, is relatively long, while the lower
part, the shin-bone, or tibia, is relatively short. Indeed, both in the arm
and in the leg the upper bones are relatively long and the lower bones are
relatively short. These proportions, which are inheritances of arboreal life,
are in very marked contrast to those observed in the arms and
We observe also in
the chimpanzee a contrast between the grasping power of the big toe, which is a
kind of thumb, and the lack of that power in the hand, in which the thumb is
nearly useless; in all apes this function is characteristic of the foot, in man
of the hand alone. The opposable thumb, with its power of bringing the thumb
against each of the fingers, is the one character which is lacking in every
one of the anthropoid apes and which was early developed among the ancestors of
man.
The skull of the
chimpanzee is longer than that of the orang, the most prominent feature in the
top view being the extreme protuberance of the orbits, which are surrounded by
a supraorbital and
circumorbital bony ridge, which is also strongly developed in the Neanderthal
skull as well as in the Pithecanthropus or Trinil skull but, so far as we know,
is entirely lacking in that of Piltdown. As in the orang and the gorilla, a
crest develops along the middle of the top of the skull for the insertion of
the powerful muscles of the jaws, a crest which is wholly wanting in the gibbon
and probably wanting in all the true ancestors of man.
The gorilla illustrates
in the extreme the specializations which are begun in the chimpanzee, and which
are attributable to a
life partly arboreal,
partly terrestrial, with the skull and jaws used as powerful fighting organs.
The head is lengthened by the forward growth of the muzzle into an extreme
prognathism. The limbs and body of the gorilla show a departure from the
primitive, slender-limbed, arboreal type of apes and are partly adapted to a
bipedal, ground-dwelling habit.
As regards psychic
evolution, Elliot Smith observes that the arboreal mode of life of
the early ancestors of man developed quick, alert, and agile movements which
stimulated the progressive development of the posterior and lateral portions
of the brain. The sense of smell had been well developed in a previous
terrestrial life, but once these creatures left the earth and took
The anatomy of man is
full of remote reminders of this original arboreal existence, which also
explains the very large and early development of the posterior portions of the
brain, in which the various senses of sight, touch, and hearing are located.
The first advance
from arboreal to terrestrial life is marked by the power of walking more or
less erect on the hind limbs and thus releasing the arms; this power is
developed to a greater or less degree in all the anthropoid apes; with practice
they become
Discussion as to how
the ancestors of man were fashioned has chiefly dealt with the rival claims of
four lines of structural evolution : first, the assumption of the erect
attitude; second, the development of the opposable thumb; third, the growth
of the brain; and fourth, the acquisition of the power of speech. The
argument for the erect attitude suggested by Lamarck, and ably put by Munro in 1893, indicates that the cultivation of skill
The true conception
of prehuman evolution, which occurred during Miocene and Pliocene times, is
rather that of the coincident development of these four distinctively human
powers. It appears from the limb proportions in the Neanderthal race
This is the stage
reached, we believe, in late Pliocene times in which the human ancestor emerges
from the age of mammals and enters the age of man, the period when the
prehistory of man properly begins. The attitude is erect, the hand has a well-
developed opposable thumb, the centres of the brain relating to the higher
senses and to the control of all the motions of the limbs, hands, and fingers
are well developed. The power of speech may still be rudimentary. The anterior
centres of the brain for the storing of experience and the development of ideas
are certainly very rudimentary.
Change of Environment in Europe
Considering that the
origin and development of any creature are best furthered by a struggle for
existence sufficiently severe to demand the full and frequent exercise of its
powers of mind and body, it is interesting to trace the sequence of natural
events which prepared western Europe for the entrance of the earliest branches
of the human race. The forests and plants portray even more vividly than the
animals the changing conditions of the environment and temperature which marked
the approach and various vicissitudes of the great Ice Age.
The forests of
central France in Pliocene times, as well as those of the valley of the Arno in
northern Italy, were very similar to the forests of the middle United States at
the present time, comprising such trees as the sassafras, the locust, the
honey-locust, the sumach, the bald cypress, and the tulip. Thus the regions
which harbored the rich forest and meadow fauna of northern Italy in
Upper Pliocene times abounded in trees familiar today in North and
South Carolina, including even such distinctively American forms as the sweet
gum (Liquidambar styraciflua), the sour gum (Nyssa sylvatica), and the bay,
beside those above mentioned. To the south, along the Mediterranean, there also
flourished trees incident to a more tropical climate, the bamboo, the sabal
palm, and the dwarf fan-palm; most interesting is the presence of the sabal,
which now flourishes in the subtropical rain forests of central Florida. The
sequoia also was abundant. Toward the close of the Pliocene the first
indications of the coming Glacial Epoch were a lowering of the temperature,
and, in the higher mountainous areas perhaps, a beginning of the glacial
stages.
The ancestors of the
modern forests of Europe predominated in central France: the oak, the beech,
the poplar, the willow, and the larch. It is these forests, which survived the
vicissitudes of glacial times, that gave descent to the forests of Postglacial
Europe, while all the purely American types disappeared from Europe and are now
found only in the temperate regions of the United States.
We have seen that few
anthropoid apes have been discovered either in the Middle or Upper Pliocene of
Europe; the gibbon-ape line disappears with the Pliohylobates of the Upper
Pliocene. These animals are, however, rarely found in fossil form, owing to
their retreat to the trees in times of flood and danger, so that we need not
necessarily assume that the anthropoids had actually become extinct in France.
The primates which are found in the Upper Pliocene belong to the lower types of
the Old World monkeys, related to the living langur of India and to the macaque
and baboon. The evidence, as far as it goes, indicates that the
The mammals of Europe
in Pliocene times were derived by very remote migrations from North
America and, more directly, from southern Asia. The Oriental element is very
strong, including types of rhinoceroses now peculiar to Sumatra and southern
Asia, numerous mastodons very similar to the south Asiatic types of the times,
gazelles and antelopes, including types related to the existing elands, and
primitive types of horses and of tapirs. Among the carnivores in Europe similar
to south Asiatic species were the hyaenas, the dog bears (Hyaenarctos), the
civets, and the pandas (Ailurus); there were also the sabre-tooth tigers and
numerous other felines. In the trees were found the south Asiatic and north
African monkeys; and in the forests the axis deer, now restricted to Asia. But
the most distinctive African-Asiatic animal of this period was found in the
rivers; namely, the hippopotamus, which arrived in Italy in the early Pliocene
and ranged south by way of the Sicilian land bridge into northern Africa and
east along the southern shores of the Black Sea to the Siwalik hills of India.
Thus, many of the ancestors of what we have termed the African-Asiatic mammal
group of Pleistocene times had already found their way. into Europe early in
Pliocene times. In middle and late Pliocene times there arrived three very
important types of mammals which played a great role in the early Pleistocene.
These are:
The true horses (Equus
stenonis) of remote North American origin.
The first true cattle
(Leptobos clatus), originating in southern Asia.
The true elephants,
first Elephas planifrons and later E. meridionalis, better known as the
southern mammoth, both originating in Asia.
The forests and river
borders of the valley of the Arno, near Florence, contained all these
African-Asiatic animals in Upper Pliocene times. Here they received their names
which remind us of this region of Italy as it is today, such as the Etruscan
rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus etruscus), the Florentine macaque (Macacus
florentinus), Steno’s horse (Equus stenonis), the Etruscan cattle (Leptobos
etruscus), which was the earliest ox to reach Europe.
In Italy and France
these African-Asiatic mammals were mingled with ancestors of the more hardy
Eurasiatic forest and meadow group. Of these the most graceful were a variety
of deer with very elaborate or many-branched antlers, hence known as the
‘polycladine deer. In the forests roamed the wild boars of Auvergne
(Sus arvernensis), also the bears of Auvergne (Ursus arvernensis), lynxes,
foxes, and wildcats. In the rivers swam the otter and the beaver, closely
allied to existing forms. Among the rocks of the high hills were the pikas or
tailless hares (Lagomys), also hamsters, moles, and shrews.
Many of the most
characteristic animals of the dry modern plateaus of Africa had disappeared
from Europe before the close of Pliocene times, namely, species of gazelles,
antelopes, and the hipparion horses, all of which were adapted to the dry
uplands or deserts of Africa. In the remaining faune Pliocene recente of French
authors we find evidence that the Pliocene in all of western Europe closed with
a moist, warm, temperate climate, with widespread forests and rivers
interspersed with meadows favorable to the life of a great variety of browsing
deer as well as of grazing elephants, horses and cattle. The flora of the
Middle Pliocene as found at Meximieux indicates a mean annual temperature of
62° to 63° Fahr.
One of the proofs of
the gradual lowering of temperature toward the close of Pliocene times in
Europe is the southward retreat and disappearance of the apes and monkeys; the
Upper Miocene gibbon is found as far north as Eppelsheim, near Worms, Germany;
in Lower Pliocene times the monkeys and apes are found only in the forests of
the south of France; in Upper
Finally, at the end
of the Pliocene there existed very close geographic relations eastward with the
mammalian life of India by way of what was then the isthmus of the Dardanelles
and southward with the mammalian life of Africa by way of the
Sicilian land bridge. This would indicate that the long lines of eastward and
westward migration were open and favorable to the arrival in western Europe of
new migrants from the far east, including perhaps the most primitive races of
man. There is not the least evidence that Pliocene man or ancestors of man
existed in Europe, excepting such as may be afforded by the problematic
eoliths, or most primitive flints.
The First Glaciation
In Upper Pliocene
times cold marine currents from the north began to flow along the
southeastern coast of England, with indications of a gradually lowering
temperature culminating at a time when the sea abounded in the arctic mollusks,
which have been preserved in the Weybourn Crags, a geologic
formation along the coast of Norfolk. This arctic current was the herald of the
First Glacial Stage.
It does not appear
that a glacial cap of any considerable extent was formed in Great Britain at
this stage, but about this time the first great ice-cap was formed in British
North America west of Hudson Bay, which sent its ice-sheets as far south as
Iowa and Nebraska. In the latter State forests of spruce and other coniferous
species indicate the appearance of a cool temperate flora in advance of the
glaciation. In the Swiss Alps the snow descended 1,200 meters below the present
snow-line, and in Scandinavia and northern Germany the first great ice-sheets
were formed from which flowed the glaciers and rivers conveying the ‘Old
Diluvium,’ or the ‘oldest drift.’ Accompanying the cold wave along the eastern
coast of England we note, in the famous fossil deposits known as the ‘Forest
Bed of Cromer,’
While Great Britain
was less affected at this time than other regions, there is no doubt as to the
vast extent of the First Glacial Stage in British America, in Scandinavia, and
in the Alps; in the latter region it has been termed ‘the Giinz stage’ by Penck
and Bruckner. The ‘drift’ deposits have a general thickness of 98'1/2
The First Interglacial Stage. Eoliths
Proofs that a
prolonged cool wave passed over Britain during the first glaciation are seen
in its after effects, namely, in the modernization of the forests and in the
disappearance both in Britain and France of a very considerable number of
animals which were abundant in Upper Pliocene times. Yet by far the greater part
of the Pliocene mammal life survived, a fact which tends to show that, while
very cold conditions of climate and great precipitation of moisture may have
characterized the regions immediately surrounding the ice-fields, the remainder
of western Europe at most passed through a prolonged cool period during
This First
Interglacial Stage is known as the Norfolkian, from the fact that it was first
recognized in Europe in the deposits known as the Forest Bed of Cromer,
Norfolk, which contain rich records not only of the forests of the period, but
of the noble forms of mammals which roamed over Great Britain and France in Norfolkian times. The forests of Norfolk, in latitude 520 40' N. mainly
abounded in trees still indigenous to this region, such as the maple, elm,
birch, willow, alder, oak, beech, pine, and spruce, a forest flora closely
corresponding to that of the Norfolk and Suffolk coasts of England at the
present time, although we find in this fossil flora several exotic species
which give it a slightly different character. From this tree flora
Reid concludes that the climate of southeastern England was nearly the same as
at present but slightly warmer.
We note especially
that a very great change had taken place in the entire disappearance in these
forests of the trees which in Pliocene times were common to Europe and America,
as described above; in other words, the flora of Europe was greatly impoverished
during the first cold wave.
In southern France,
as at the present time, the interglacial climatic conditions were milder, for
we find numerous species of plants, which are now represented in the Caucasus,
Persia, southern Italy, Portugal, and Japan. Thus the First Interglacial
Stage, which was a relatively short one, enjoyed a temperature now belonging
about 40 of latitude farther south.
This First
Interglacial Stage is also known as the St.-Prestien, because among the many
localities in France and Italy which preserve the plant and mammal life of the
times that of St. Prest, in the Paris basin, is the most famous. Here in 1863
Desnoyers first reported the discovery of a number of mammal bones
with incision lines upon them, which he considered to be the work of man. These
deposits were regarded at the time as of Pliocene age, and this gave rise
immediately to a widespread theory
St. Prest is not
Pliocene; it is rather the most ancient Pleistocene deposit in the basin of
Paris, and these incised mammal bones probably date from the First
Interglacial Stage. The bed which has yielded the incised bones and the rich
series of fossils consists of coarse river sands and gravels, forming part of a
'high terrace', 98'1/2 feet (30 m.) above the present level of the river Eure.
This, like other ‘high terraces' contains a characteristic First Interglacial
fauna, including the southern mammoth (E. meridionalis), and Steno’s horse (E.
stenonis). We also find here other very characteristic early Pleistocene
mammals, such as the Etruscan rhinoceros (D. etruscus), the giant hippopotamus
of early Pleistocene times (E. major), the giant beaver of the early
Pleistocene (Trogontherium), three forms of the common beaver (Castor), and one
of the bison (Bison antiquus). This mammalian life of St. Prest is very similar
to that of Norfolk, England; to that of Malbattu in central France,
Puy-de-Dome; of Peyrolles, near the mouth of the Rhone, in southern France; of
Solilhac near Puy; of Durfort, Gard; of Cajarc, Lot-et-Garonne; and finally
to that of the valley of the Arno, in northern Italy.
One reason why
certain authors, such as Boule and Deperet, have placed this stage in the Upper
Pliocene is that the mammals include so many surviving Pliocene forms, such as
the sabre-tooth tigers (Machaerodus), the ‘polycladine’ deer with the elaborate
antlers (C. sedgwicki), the Etruscan rhinoceros, and the primitive Steno’s
horse. But we have recently discovered that, with the exception of the ‘polycladine’ deer, these mammals certainly survived in Europe as late as the
Second Inters glacial Stage, and there is said to be evidence that some even
persisted into the Third Interglacial Stage.
It is, therefore, the
extinction or disappearance from Europe of many of the animals very abundant
even in late Pliocene times which marks this fauna as early Pleistocene.
Anthropoid apes are no longer found; indeed, there is no evidence of the
survival of any of the primates, except macaques, which survive in the Pyrenees
to late Pleistocene times; the tapir has entirely disappeared from the forests
of Europe; but the most significant departure is
that of the mastodon, which is believed to have lingered in north Africa and
which certainly survived in America into very late Pleistocene times. The
animal life of western Europe, like the plant life, has lost one part of its
Pliocene aspect while retaining another part, both in its mammalian fauna and
in its forest flora.
The living
environment as a whole, moreover, takes on a novel aspect through the arrival,
chiefly from the north, of the more hardy animals
and plants which had been evolving for a very long period of time in the
temperate forests and meadows of Eurasia to the northeast and northwest. From
this Eurasiatic region came the stag, or red deer (Cervus elaphus), also the
giant deer (Megaceros), and from the northerly swamps the broadheaded moose
(.Alces latifrons). The presence of members of the deer family
(Cervidac) in great numbers and representing many different lines of descent is
one of the most distinctive features of First Interglacial times. Beside the
new northerly forms mentioned above, there was the roe-deer (Capreolus), which
still survives in Europe, but there is no longer any record of the
We observe that
browsing, forest-living, and river-living types predominate. Among the
forest-frequenting carnivores were the wolverene, the otter, two kinds of bear,
the wolf, the fox, and the marten; another forest dweller was a wild boar,
related to the existing Sus scrofa of Europe.
Thus in the very
beginning of Pleistocene times the forests of Europe were full of a wild life
very similar to that of prehistoric times, mingled with which was the Oriental
element, the great elephants, rhinoceroses, ancl hippopotami connecting Europe
with the far east. Among these eastern migrants in the early Pleistocene were
two new arrivals, the primitive wild cattle (Bos primigenius), and the first of
the bison (Bison priscus).
The theoretical map
of western Europe during First Interglacial times
enables us to understand these migrations from the northeast and from the
Orient. As indicated by the sunken river channels discovered on the old continental
shelf, the coast-line extended far to the west to the borders of the
continental plateau which is now sunk deep beneath the ocean; the British Isles
were separated from France not by the sea but by a broad valley, while the
Rhine, with the Thames as a western tributary flowed northward over an
extensive flood-plain, which is the present floor of the North Sea basin. It is not improbable that the rich mammalian life deposits in the 'Forest Bed
of Cromer',Norfolk, were washed down by tributaries of this
ancient Rhine River.
In all the great
rivers of this enlarged western Europe occurred the hippopotami, and along the
river borders and in the forests browsed the Etruscan rhinoceros. Among the
grazing and meadow-living forms of the Norfolk country of Britain were species
of wild cattle (Bos, Leptobos), together with two species
Preying upon the
defenseless members of this heterogeneous fauna were the great machaerodonts,
or sabre-tooth tigers, which ranged over Europe and northern Africa and into
Asia. It does not appear that the true lions (Felis leo) had as yet entered
Europe.
An intercommunication
of life over a vast area extending 6,000 miles from the Thames valley on the
west to India on the southeast is indicated by the presence of six or more
similar or related species of elephants and rhinoceroses. Twenty-five hundred
miles southeast of the foot-hills of the Himalayas similar herds of mammals,
but in an earlier stage of evolution, roamed over the island of Java, which was
then a part of the Asiatic mainland.
The Trinil Race of Java
The human interest in
this great life throng lies in the fact that the migration routes opened by
these great races of animals may also have afforded a pathway for the earliest
races of men. Thus the discovery of the Trinil race in central Java, amidst a
On the Bengawan River
in central Java, a Dutch army surgeon, Eugen Dubois, had been excavating for
fossils in the hope of finding prehuman remains. In the year 1891 he found near
Trinil a deposit of numerous mammal bones, including a single upper molar tooth
which he regarded as that of a new species of
Thus the author
placed Pithecanthropus in a new family, of the order Primates, which he named
the Pithecanthropidae.
The
geologic age of the bones referred to is a matter of
first importance. The remains of Pithecanthropus lay in a deposit about one
meter in
thickness, consisting of
loose, coarse, tufaceous sandstones,
below this a stratum of hard, blue-gray clay, and under that marine breccia.
Above the Pithecanthropus layer were the ‘Kendeng’ strata, a many-layered
tufaceous sandstone, about 15 meters in thickness. This geologic series was
considered by Dubois and others to be of late
Tertiary or Pliocene
age; Pithecanthropus accordingly became known as the long- awaited ‘Pliocene
ape-man'. Subsequent researches by expert geologists have tended to refer the
age to the early Pleistocene. According to Elbert the Kendeng strata overlying the Pithecanthropus layer correspond to an early
pluvial period of low temperature and, in point of time, to the
The fossil mammals
contained in the Pithecanthropus layer have also been thoroughly studied, and they tend to confirm the original reference to the uppermost Pliocene. They
yield a very rich fauna similar to that of the Siwalik hills of India, including
the porcupine, pangolin, several felines, the hyaena, and
The geologic age of the Trinil race is, therefore, to be considered as late Pliocene or early Pleistocene. This great discovery of Dubois aroused wide-spread and heated discussion, in which the foremost anatomists and palaeontologists of the world took part. Some regarded the skull as that of a giant gibbon, others as prehuman, and still others as a transition form. We may form our own opinion, however, from a fuller
understanding of the specimens themselves, always keeping in mind that it is a
question whether the femur and the skull belong to the same individual or even
to the same race. First, we are struck by the marked resemblance which the top
of the skull bears, both on viewing it from the side and from above, to that of
the Neanderthal race. This fully justifies the opinion of the anatomist
Schwalbe that the skull of Pithecanthropus is nearer to that of
Neanderthal man than to that of even the
Lowest
human race 52 per cent.
Neanderthal
man 40.4 per cent.
Pithecanthropus,
or Trinil race 34.2 per cent.
This accords with the
estimate of the brain capacity of 855 c.cm. (Dubois) as compared with 1,230
c.cm., the smallest brain
This prehuman stage
has, none the less, a very great significance in the developmental history of
man. In our opinion it is the very stage which, theoretically, we should
anticipate finding in the dawn of the Pleistocene. A similar view is taken by
Büchner, who presents in an admirable diagram the
If the femur belongs
with the skull, the Trinils were a tall race, reaching a height of 5 feet 7
inches as compared with 5 feet 3 inches in the Neanderthals. The thigh-bone
has a very slight curvature as compared with that of any of the apes
or lemurs, and in this respect is more human; it is remarkably elongate (455
mm.), surpassing that of the Neanderthals; the
Various efforts have
been made to supplement the scattered and scanty materials collected by Dubois.
The Selenka expedition of 1907-8 brought back a human left lower molar as the
only result of an express search for more Pithecanthropus remains.
Dubois is also said
to possess the fragment of a primitive-looking lower jaw from the range known
as the Kendeng Hills, at the southern base of which lies the village of Trinil.
It remains for us to
consider the stage of psychic evolution attained by the Trinil race, and this
naturally turns upon the erect attitude and
what little is known of the size and proportions of the brain.
The assumption of the
erect attitude is not merely a question of learning to balance the body on the
hinder extremities. It involves changes in the interior of the
body, the loss of the tail, the freeing of the arms, and the establishment of
the diaphragm as the chief muscle of respiration. The thigh-bone of Pithecanthropus
is so much like that of man as to support the theory that the ercct position
may have been assumed by the ancestors of man as early as Oligocene times. It
would appear that Pithecanthropus had free use of the arms and it is possible
that the
Elliot Smith
describes this stage of development as follows : “. . . The emancipation
of the hands from progression threw the whole responsibility upon the legs,
which became more efficient for their purpose as supports once they lost
their prehensile powers and became elongated and specialized for rapid
progression.
Thus the erect attitude
became stereotyped and fixed and the limbs specialized, and these upright
simians emerged from their ancestral forests societies, armed
The
undeveloped forehead of Pithecanthropus and the diminutive frontal area of the
brain indicate that the Trinil race had a limited faculty of profiting by
experience and accumulated tradition, for in this prefrontal area of the brain
are located the powers of attention and of control of the activities of all
other
Absence
of PalAEoliths and Presence of Eoliths in Western
Returning to First
Interglacial conditions in Europe, we observe that the river courses flowed
through the same valleys as at present but that in early glacial times the
channels were far
Eoliths found on this
‘high-terrace’ level at St. Prest belong to the Prestien culture of Rutot, who regards this station as of Upper Pliocene age. These, like other supposed
Eolithic flints, are very rough, but, rude as they are, they generally exhibit
one part shaped as if to be grasped by the hand, while the other part is edged
or pointed as for cutting. It is generally admitted that these flints are
mostly of accidental shapes, and there has been little or no proof of their
being fashioned by human hands. On this point Boule observes : “As
to the eoliths, I have combated the theory not only because it seems to me
improbable but because a long geological experience has shown me that it is
often impossible to distinguish stones split, cut, or retouched by purely
physical agents from certain products of rudimentary workmanship.” On the
other side, it is interesting at this point to quote the words of MacCurdy: “My opinion, based on personal experience, ... is that the existence of a
primitive industry, antedating what is commonly accepted as Palaeolithic, has
been established. This industry occurs as far back as the Upper Miocene and
continues on through the Upper Tertiary into and including the Lower
Quaternary. The distinguishing characters of the industry remain but little
changed throughout the entire period, the subdivision of the period into epochs
being based on stratigraphy [geologic stages] and not on industrial
characters. The requirements in the way of tools being very simple and the
supply of material in the way of natural flakes and fragments of flint being
very plentiful, the inventive powers of the population remained dormant for
ages. Hammer and knife were the original tools. Both were picked up
ready-made. A sharp-edged, natural flake served for one, and a nodule or
fragment served for the other. When the edge of the flake became dulled by use,
the
It is not improbable
that the Trinil race was in a stage of Eolithic culture; it is highly probable
that the prehuman races of this very remote geologic age used more than one
weapon of wood and stone.
The Great Second
Glaciation
In early Pleistocene
times a general elevation of southern Europe united the islands of the
Mediterranean with Europe on the north and with Africa on the south, forming
broad land connections between the two continents which afforded both
northward and southward migration routes. At this time certain characteristically
African mammals, such as the straight-tusked elephant and the lion, were
probably finding their way north; Sicily at this time gained its large fauna of
elephants and hippopotami, and the island of Malta was connected with the
mainland, as well as the easterly islands of Cyprus and Crete. It appears
probable that the connection between the Italian mainland and Malta was renewed
more than once.
The approach of the
second glaciation is indicated along the southeast coast of Great Britain by
the subsidence of the land and the rise of the sea, accompanied by a fresh
arctic current, bringing with it an invasion of arctic mollusks which were
deposited in a layer of marine beds directly over those which contain the
The second glaciation
was by far the greatest both in Europe and America. In the region of the
Pyrenees, which at the very much later period of the Third Interglacial Stage
became a favorite country with Palaeolithic man, there were glaciers of vast
extent. This is realized by comparison with present conditions. The largest of
the present glaciers of the Pyrenees is only 2 miles in length and terminates
at a height of 7,200 feet above the sea. During the greatest glaciation the
snow appears to have descended 4,265 feet below its present level. From the
Pyrenees through the Gallego valley into Spain there flowed a glacier 38 miles
in length, while to the north the glacier in the valley of the Garonne flowed
for a distance of 45 miles to a point near Montréjeau. Even in its lower reaches
this glacier was over half a mile in thickness. To the east was a glacier 38
miles in length, filling the valley of the Ariege and covering the sites of
such great Palaeolithic caverns as that of Niaux; it is probable that at this
time the formation of this cavern began. That these glaciers were all prior to
the period of the Lower Palaeolithic Acheulean culture is proven by the fact
that Acheulean implements are frequently met with lying on the surface of the
moraines laid down by these ancient ice-floes.
To the north was the
vast Scandinavian ice-field, which swept over Great Britain and beyond the
valleys of the Rhine, Elbe, and Vistula, reaching nearly to the Carpathians.
Even the lesser mountain chains were capped with glaciers, including the Atlas
Mountains in northern Africa.
In North America from
the great centre west of Hudson Bay the ice-cap extended its drift southward
into Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska, beyond the limits of earlier and subsequent
glaciations.
The materials of the
chief ‘high terraces’ of the great river-valleys of western Europe were
deposited at this time.
Life
of the Warm Second Interglacial Stage
The long warm period
which followed the great glaciation is remarkable in presenting the first
proofs of the presence of man in western Europe. It is the period of the
Heidelberg race of man (Homo heidelbergensis), known only from a single jaw discovered
by Schoetensack in the Mauer sands near Heidelberg, in 1907. No other proofs of
the existence of man have been found in any of the deposits which took place
during this vast interval of geologic time, unless we accept the theory of
Penck and of Geikie that the Pre-Chellean and Chellean quarries of the River
Somme belong in the Second Interglacial Stage.
The vast duration of
this interglacial time is evidenced both in Europe and America by the deep
cutting and wearing away of the ‘drifts’ brought down by the second glaciation.
Penck believes that this ‘long warm stage’ represents a greater period of time
than the entire interval between the third glaciation and the present time. The
climate immediately following the retreat of the glaciers was cool and moist
in the glaciated regions, but this was followed by such a prolonged period of
heat and dryness that the glaciers on the Alps withdrew to a point far above
their present limits.
In one of the old
‘high terraces’ of the River Inn, in the north Tyrol, is a deposit containing
the prevailing forest flora of the period, from which Penck concludes that the
climate of Innsbruck was 20 C. higher than it is at the present
time. Corresponding with this the snow-line stood 1,000 feet above its present
level, and the Alps, save for the higher peaks, were almost completely denuded
of ice and snow. A characteristic plant is the Pontic alpine rose (Rhododendron ponticum), which flourishes now in an annual temperature of 57°-65°
Fahr., indicating that the climate of Innsbruck was as genial as
that of the Italian slopes of the Alps today. This rhododendron is now found
in the Caucasus. Other southern species of the time were a buckthorn,
It is difficult to
imagine forests of this modern character, which farther northward included a
number of still more temperate and hardy species, as the setting of the great
African and Asiatic life that roamed all over western Europe at this time. It
was the presence of hippopotami, elephants, and rhinoceroses which gave to
Lyell, Evans, and other early observers the impression that a tropical
temperature and vegetation were characteristic of this long life period. These
animals were formerly regarded as proofs of an almost tropical climate, but the
more trustworthy evidence of the forests, strengthened by that of the presence
of very numerous hardy types of forest and meadow animals, has set aside all
the early theories as to extremely warm temperatures during. Second
Interglacial times.
The remains of what
is still conveniently known as the faune chaude,or warm
fauna, are chiefly found in the sands and gravels of the ancient beds of the
Neckar, Garonne, and Thames, and other rivers of the north and south, also in
Essex, England. The most surprising fact is that the mammal life of western
Europe remained entirely unchanged by the vast second glaciation just
described; the few extinctions which occurred as well as a number of new arrivals
may be attributed to new geographical connections with Africa on the south and
to the steady progress of migration from the far east.
Fig. 42. The hippopotamus (H. major) and the southern mammoth (E.
meridionalls trogonlherii), a pair of mammals which enjoyed a similar range
over western Europe from the close of the Pliocene until the middle of Third
Interglacial times, when their remains are found associated with flints of
Pre-Chellean, Chellean, and early Acheulean age. One-sixtieth life size. Drawn
by Erwin S. Christman.
There were four very
important and distinctive new arrivals from the African-Asiatic world, namely,
the straight-tusked or ancient elephant (E. antiquus), the broad-nosed
rhinoceros (D. merckii), the African lion (Felis leo), and the African hyaena
(H. striata), which bespeak close geographical connections with
They are in contrast to the other pair
The African lion
would appear to have been a competitor of the sabre-tooth tiger, for the latter
animal now becomes less abundant, although there is reason to believe that it
survived until the Third Interglacial Stage. With the ancient Pliocene
type of the
sabre-tooth were also found the Etruscan rhinoceros, the primitive bear of
Auvergne (Ursus arvernensis), and the giant beaver (Trogonthcrium cuvieri).
The northern forests
of the time were frequented by the broadfaced moose, the giant deer, and the
roe-deer, as well as by noble specimens of the stag (Cervus elaphus). In the
open forests and meadows the wild cattle (Bos primigenius) began to be more
The
Heidelberg Race
To us by far the most
interesting mammalian life is that found south of the mouth of
the Neckar along the ancient stream Elsenz, where
were deposited the lower ‘sands of Mauer,’ containing the lower jaw of the Heidelberg man and the remains of many animals of the period. The enumeration 01 this entire fauna is very important, as indicating
the temperate climatic conditions which surrounded the first true species of
man which
has thus far been discovered in Europe. The
discoverer, Schoetensack, referred these
mammals and the Heidelberg man to the
First Interglacial Stage, and a
similar opinion has recently been expressed by Geikie. The presence of the Etruscan rhinoceros would
appear to point to such great antiquity, but the evidence afforded by this primitive
animal is overborne by that of
three mammals which are highly characteristic of Second Interglacial times;
these are the straight-tusked or
ancient elephant (E.
antiquus), the lion, and the Mosbach horse. Excepting only the Etruscan
rhinoceros, all these species frequenting the ancient stream Elsenz and
deposited with the ‘sands of Mauer’ occurred also in the forests and meadows of
the region now known as Baden, where the fossil mammal deposits of Mosbach near
the Neckar are found. A similar mammalian life of a somewhat more recent time
occurs in the river gravels of Siissenborn, near Weimar. The horses of Mauer,
of Mosbach, and of Süssenborn
were of much larger size and of more specialized character than Steno’s horse
of First Interglacial times.
Thus the Heidelbergs,
the first human race recorded in western Europe, appear in southern Germany
early in Second Interglacial times, in the midst of a most imposing mammalian
fauna of northern aspect and containing many forest-living species, such as
bear, deer, and moose; in the meadows and forests browsed the giant,
straight-tusked elephant (E. antiquus), which from the simple structure of its
grinding-teeth is regarded as similar in habit to the African elephant now
inhabiting the forests of central Africa; the presence of this animal indicates
a relatively moist climate and well-forested country. The Etruscan rhinoceros
differed from the larger Merck’s form in the possession of relatively
short-crowned grinding-teeth, adapted to browsing habits and a
forested country; on the head were borne two horns; it was a long-limbed,
rapidly moving type; the herds
The discovery in 1907
of a human lower jaw in the base of the ‘Mauer sands’ is one of the most
important in the whole history of anthropology. The find was made at a depth of
79 feet (24.10 m.) from the upper surface of a high bluff, in ancient
river sands which had long been known to yield the very old mammalian fauna
described above. For years the workmen had been
instructed to keep a sharp lookout for human remains. The jaw had evidently
drifted down with the river sands and had become separated from the skull, but
it remained in perfect preservation. The author’s description may first be
quoted. The mandible shows a combination of features never before
found in any fossil or recent man. The protrusion of the lower jaw just below
the front teeth which gives shape to the human chin is entirely lacking. Had
the teeth been absent it would have been impossible to diagnose it as human.
From a fragment of the symphysis of the jaw it might well have been classed as
some gorilla-like anthropoid, while the ascending ramus resembles that of some
large variety of gibbon. The absolute certainty that these remains are human is
based on the form of the teeth—molars, premolars, canines, and incisors are all
essentially human and,
although somewhat primitive in form, show no trace of being intermediate
between man and the anthropoid apes but rather of being derived from some older
common ancestor. The teeth, however, are somewhat small for the jaw; the size
of the border would allow for the development of much larger teeth; we can only
conclude that no great strain was put on the teeth, and therefore the powerful
development of the bones of the jaw was not designed for their benefit. The
conclusion is
In a conservative
spirit, Schoetensack named the type represented by this jaw Homo
heidelbergensis. Other authors have regarded it as of distinct generic rank;
thus it has been termed Palaeoanthropus heidelbergensis by Bonarelli. The jaw itself is extremely massive; the canine teeth, unlike those of the anthropoid
apes and of the Piltdown race, do not project beyond the line of the other
teeth and were therefore not used as weapons of offense and defense as in the
anthropoids, in which these teeth
It would seem that in the jaw, and probably in all other characters of the skull, as they become known,
the Heidelberg race will be found to be a Neanderthal in the making, that is, a
primitive, more powerful, and more ape-like ancestral form. In the matter of
the retreating chin, the true Neanderthals of Spy, Malarnaud, Krapina,
Not only among the
Eskimos, but generally throughout the savage races of Australia and of other
countries, the jaws are used as tools; among the Australians the teeth are very
much worn
The typical mammalian
life of Second Interglacial times as found at Mosbach and Siissenborn belongs
perhaps to a somewhat more recent stage of Second Interglacial times than that
of the Mauer sands for in these localities the Etruscan rhinoceros
Early
Northern Migrations of the Reindeer
The animals that we
have described belong in the warmer and more temperate regions of Europe. In
the regions near the glaciers the reindeer was already to be found; in fact,
this characteristically northern animal is recorded in the gravels of Süssenborn, near Weimar.
There is evidence of
a succession of climatic changes in the region of Heidelberg. The Heidelberg
jaw with its temperate mammalian fauna occurred at the very base of the Mauer
bluff,
The evidence of the
first cold, arid period which for the time greatly affected the climate of
western Europe is also found in the layer of so-called ‘ancient loess’ which
lies in the bluff above the ‘sands of Mauer.’ This loess covers the warm
mammalian deposits of the ‘sands of Mosbach’ as well as the ‘high terraces’ of
many of the ancient river-valleys. Both in Europe and America the climatic
sequence of the Second Interglacial Stage from moist to dry appears to have
been the same.
Thus, after the
recession of the ice-fields of the second glaciation, the climate was at first
cold and moist; then followed a long warm stage, favorable to the spread of
forests; this was finally succeeded by a period of aridity in which the most
ancient ‘loess’ deposits occurred. In Russia, also, the third glaciation was
preceded by an arid and steppe-like climate with high winds favorable to the
transportation of ‘loess.’
No palaeoliths or
other proofs of human occupation have been found in this cold, dry period, for
there is no evidence in any part of Europe of camping stations in this ‘ancient
loess’ such as we find in the ‘loess’ which was deposited during the similar
arid period toward the close of Third Interglacial and again during
Postglacial times. Nor have we any record of the mammalian life in this
‘ancient loess’ of Europe.
The Third Glaciation
This arid period in
northern Europe and in North America was followed by the moist, cool climate of
the third glaciation. It is estimated by Penck that the advance of these new
ice-fields began 120,000 years ago and that the period of advance and retreat
of the glaciers was not less than 20,000 years. In the Alps the
snow-line descended 1,250 metres below the present level; consequently this
glaciation was more severe than the first but somewhat less severe than the
second. In northern Europe the Scandinavian ice-field did not cover so wide an
area as during the second glaciation, although Britain and Scandinavia were
again deeply buried by ice; the glacial cap and glaciers flowed in a westerly
and southwesterly direction across Denmark and the southern portion of the
basin of the Baltic into Holland and northern Germany. In the Alps the third
glaciation sent vast ice-floes along the valley of the Rhine, into eastern
France, and into the valley of the Po, where this glaciation was even more
extensive than the second. But the greatest glacier of this time was that of
the Isar, a southern tributary of the Danube, which rises in the Bavarian Alps.
During the Third
Glacial Stage certain of the ‘middle terraces’ along the Rhine and other rivers
flowing from the Alps were formed. In Britain, whereas during the
second glaciation the ice-fields extended as far south as the Thames, during
the third glaciation they did not extend beyond the midlands; yet an arctic
climate prevailed over southern England, with tundra conditions and
temperature, as indicated by the plant deposits at Hoxne in
Suffolk. Even before the third glaciation began in Europe a great ice-cap had
formed over Labrador, on the eastern coast of North America, and the ice-sheets
flowing to the south and southwest extended as far as Illinois, depositing the
great Illinoian ‘drifts.’
Along the borders of
these great ice-fields in both countries a cold and moist climate prevailed,
for a prime condition of glaciation is the heavy precipitation of snow. In northern
Europe, between the great Alpine and Scandinavian ice-fields of the third
glaciation a cold climate undoubtedly prevailed; in the region of the Neckar River,
near Cannstatt, is found a deposit known as 'mammoth loam', which Koken
believed to be contemporaneous with the period of the third glaciation,
although the evidence is certainly not convincing. Here are found
fossil remains of the Scandinavian reindeer, also of two very important new
arrivals in Europe from the tundra regions of the far northeast, animals
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
