In the female of the _Simia morio_, which is the smallest Orang, all
the structures just mentioned as characterising the young _Simia
satyrus_ and the young male _Morio_ are exaggerated. There are faint
frontal ridges also, and the back ridge or crest is shown, but there is
hardly any difference in the size of the brain case. The front bone of
the upper jaw is very distinct; and the creature whose skull is in the
British Museum had its permanent teeth, the milk ones having fallen.
There was the same number of teeth as in the Troglodytes and in man.
But it is in the old males that the juvenile structures are greatly
altered; and it is indeed hard to believe their skulls ever could have
belonged to the same species. In the old males the brain case has not
increased in its capacity, but it is furnished with huge ridges along
the front and crossing behind. The ridges commence on the brow ridges
and the outside of the orbits, which are no longer nearly circular, but
flattened above; they pass on to the forehead, and curve to join in
the middle line of the skull, forming a crest. This meets at the back
a crest coming from the tip of each ear-bone. The cheek-bones are huge
and wide apart; the upper canine teeth are great, and their sockets
mark the face. The palate is huge, wide, and not arched; and the upper
middle incisors project, and are very large, cutting indeed upon three
of the lower ones.
[Illustration: WRIST BONES OF ORANG.[17]]
All the roughnesses for the attachment of muscles are great, and the
lower jaw is immense, and the tooth next to the lower canine--the first
false molar--is pointed and cutting behind. Finally, the opening for
the spinal cord (the foramen magnum) is round in front, and the condyle
joints are close to its anterior margin. These are changes during the
growth which are worth considering, especially as they cause the animal
to depart from many of its man-like characters, which are so well seen
in the young and in the females.
The Orang has no uvula, and the papillæ of the back of the tongue are
in the shape of the letter V. Its stomach differs somewhat in shape
from that of man and the Troglodytes, but its vegetable diet determines
the existence of a large intestine which has a little ending or
appendix (vermiformis) as in man.
[Illustration: SIAMANG.]
CHAPTER IV.
THE MAN-SHAPED APES (_concluded_)--THE GIBBONS[18]--1. THE SIAMANGS--2.
THE TRUE GIBBONS.
General Characteristics of the Species--THE SIAMANG--Its Habits
and Anatomy--Distinctness from the Orangs and Gibbons--Special
Peculiarities--THE WHITE-HANDED GIBBON--Where Found--Its Cry--Its
Habits--Special Anatomical Features--THE HOOLOOK--Where Found--A
Young One in Captivity--Shape of the Skull--THE WOOYEN APE--Its
Appearance and Habits--THE WOW-WOW--Very little Known about
it--THE AGILE GIBBON--Reason of the Name--Peculiarities of the
Anatomy--General Comparison of the Different Varieties of the Great
Apes.
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