Diversions of a NaturalistLankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir
History
Diversions of a Naturalist
Lankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir
Natural history
Now that we know more of him, we may ask, "Does this Neanderthal or
Moustierian man fill the place of the missing link?" It appears that
he does not. He seems to have died out without leaving any descendants.
In so far as that his bony jaw sloped directly downwards and backwards
from the margin of the sockets of his front teeth, as in the apes,
without projecting below, to form a chin protuberance--as it does in
all races of Homo sapiens, on account of the shrinking inwards of
the gum-line or palisade of front teeth (incisors and canines)--the
Neanderman offers a certain approach to the condition of the apes; but
in other details of shape of the lower jaw, and especially in regard to
the narrowness of the lower surface of the chin and the large and deep
attachments on its inner face, for the digastric muscle and certain
muscles of the tongue, the bony remains of the Neanderman show that
he is distinctly and altogether human, and not like the higher apes.
Moreover, in the very large size of his brain (as much as 1600 units)
the Neanderman shows no approach to the relatively small brain of the
higher apes (which measures 500 units, possibly 800 by exception).
There is in these structures some argument for the conclusion that
the Neanderman could use articulate language, and inasmuch as the
climate in which he flourished was extremely cold, there is ground for
supposing that he could produce fire and clothe himself with skins. The
flint implements which are definitely associated with him are of more
skilful workmanship than the earlier, more elaborate, but less cleverly
conceived, Chellean and Acheuillian implements. We cannot refuse
to call him "man"--not Homo sapiens, we agree--but of the "genus"
Homo--Homo Neanderthalensis.
[Illustration: FIG. 24.--Diagrams of the lower surface of the
lower jaw of A, man; B, the Eoanthropus of Piltdown (the left half
reconstructed); and C, the Chimpanzee.
The jaws are supposed to be immersed in sand, so as to conceal all but
the lower surface. The narrowness of the actual inferior margin of the
jaw in man, A, a, b, contrasts with the breadth and flatness of this
same border in Eoanthropus, B, a, b, and the Chimpanzee, C, a, b.
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