Great Falls daily tribune., 1920-06-27
By FREDERIC J.
HAShlN

| believed that there must have been five.
| Three million years later, there were
only three. and the middle digit had by
that time become large and resembled
/ hoof while the bones of the toes on
each side had shortened until they did
not reach the ground.
| Man a Weak Animal.
! Because he specialized in speed, the
horse can now run as fast as % miles
an hour. while man at his swiftest can
make only about 20. Man is not a spe
cialized animal. 1t has been pointed out
to his confusion that flea can jump
1000 times its height, whereas a man
needs a pole to go only twice his six
feet In proportion to his size, man has
not as much lifting power as an ant;
/ he cannot walk as fast as fly. He
! has not learned to see in the dark like
the cat.
But it is lucky for man that his an
cestors did not concentrate on beating
| the monkeys at tree athletics or the
horse at foot racing. If they had, we
should not today be much farther ad-
vanced than the animals we might have
! emulated
Mans progress is supposed to be due
to his use of his brain, and the fact
that he developed two hands and two
feet instead of four of one or the other.
The oldest clues to ancient man so far
discovered are part of skull, thigh
bone and two teeth. These were found
in Java, and, judging by the stratum OF
soil in which they were lying, biologists
decided that the man lived 100000 years
ago. Pithecanthropus, as the scientists
called the antique Javanese was fully
developed man, though with rather ape
like features.
The Javanese man of half million
years ago, D. q mere modern compared
with some of the animals whose skele-
tons have been dug up and classified
Six millions years ago in the age of
reptiles, flourished the armored dinosaur.
which to most people is the symbol of
prehistoric times. But even the dinosaur
is young as the age of the world goes.
DR.. Walcott Of the Smithsonian Institu
ton estimates that animal life started
on the earth 1,140,000 years ago.
Somewhere between then and the very
recent Javanese gentleman man got his
start.
Father Pithecanthropus.
Science is still looking for the ances-
tors of Pithecanthropus, but it is not
looking for missing link between man
and the modern monkey, because anthro-
biologists do not think man is descended
from apes. Darwin is often misuuoted
that man and apes evolved from
common ancestor. Some scientists hold
that there were probably a number of
early animals which branched off from
the unknown ape-like ancestor and that
any one of them might have developed
into a superior being, but that somehow
all except man failed to make the most
of themselves, or became the specialized
beings of the jungle.
Mr.. Gridley explains that in the far
off times man was not the husky giant
We imagine, but a smaller creature, that
he lived in trees and used his hands to
cling by, and his voice for vague chat
terings. Then for some unknown rea-
son, possibly because the forests dis
appeared through some change of eli
mate, this prehistoric man came down
from his trees. He was curious. and so
he picked at things and examined and
explored, Then he showed his fellow
citizens his remarkable discoveries,
thus developing communication. which
is one of the greatest aids to progress.
His fellow men, crude as they were,
proflted to some extent by the research
es of the early Investigators. Gradually
Intelligence grew, grunts and squeals
were organized into speech, and in the
course of million years or so, the su-
perior creature of today was evolved.