Evening star., 1931-12-28
BY HOWARD w. BLAKESLEE,
Arrnciaiad Press Srience Editor

NEW ORLEANS, December 28.-Dis-
covery of true missing link, an animal
with the foundations of the human
face" was described to the American
Association for the Advancement of
Science today by Prof. William Patten
of Dartmouth College.
The link is tiny, 5-inch-long skele-
ton found in rocks of the Baltic Sea.
It is between 100000, 900 and 100000
600 years old, and has the typical
markings of certain early prenatal de-
velopment of human being.
It is an ostracoderm, an extinct, ten
pin shaped, fshlike creature, descend
ant of giant spiders, the sea scorpions,
which Prof. Patten said something like
thousand million years ago we're the
highest mammals in existence"
Bridges Wide Gap.
This Baltic fossil bridges the gap be-
tween mans evolutionary family" as
evolutionists say, the back-boned ami
mails, and about three-fourths of all
the worlds living creatures, which were
considered beyond the pale of kinship.
This vast outside host includes the in
sects. 1t is the arachnid family, the
iointed-foot animals, creatures which
carry their skeletons outside like armor
plate instead of inside built around
backbone.
Now. he thinks. he has found the
missing link 10 cCn.inCe them.
For more than 40 years" he said,
"the author has been trying to find in
one part of the world or another in
primitive animals, living or extinct,
some easily understood structure which
would carry conviction to his less hope
full colleagues.
That has been done, think, in the
recent discovery of some ostracodermS
from the Island of Oesel in the Baltic
Seas. They show very clearly some OF
the earliest known geologic stages in
the development of the face, with jaws
and mouth as predicted, and at the
same time resembling condition long
known to exist in early embryonic stages
of human beings.
These very ancient fossils show us
that the fundamental pattern OF bodily
organization from sea scorpions to man
has not changed in any essential re-
spects for something like thousand
million years. and that such evolution
ary factors as heredity, environment
and natural selection serve merely to
sustain. liberate or control the inner
ent creative potentialities Of the initial
patterns"
The ostracoderm has six pairs of
gills or arches in the mouth. Prenatal
humans also have gills and other SINH
arities to animals. These animal YES
tiges" change rapidly in the developing
human into various normal organs.
It appears. Prof. Patten explained
that the two upper pairs of ostracoderm
gills developed into some of the upper
head bones. The third, fourth and fifth
pairs became the upper and the lower
Jaws. The sixth pair turned into chin
These developmental readjustments,
he said, laid the foundation for the
human face"
A partial substitute for vitamin "A"
was explained by Prof. F. E. Chidches-
ter, w. D. Bourn and l. A. Wales OF
the University of West Virginia. 1t Is
composed of lineolic acid and iodine
treated with iron. Fed to rats deprived
of vitamin "a" it restored them to
health within week.
Cosmic rays were made audible for
the first time at a scientific exposition
sponsored by the association. These
rays come from interstellar space and
are so plentiful that they penetrate
everything on earth down to about
900 feet in the ground.
arise from creation of hydrogen and
other matter in space, while other
scientific leaders say they come from
destruction of matter in the hot in
terror of sun and stars.
Most of them travel at speed of light
for millions of years before reaching
earth After driving through the roof
and upper floors of the big municipal
auditorium, where the science show Is
held, they we're heard by visitors as they
fell like bullets on a counter devised
by the physics department OF Rice In
stitute of Houston, Tex
Study Prenatal Babies.
x-Ray pictures showing how to de-
termine at birth whether a baby will
be left-handed or right-handed were
exhibited by T. o. Menees. M. D., and
l.. E. Holley. M. D., of Blodgett Me-
mortal Hospital of Grand Rapids. The
baby's arm and leg bones form more
densely on the left side if the infant
is to be left-handed, and vice versa II
The Grand Rapids bone
studies also promise more reIlable |
method of determining how soon baby
can be delivered by operation and still
be expected to live.
The strand arithmetic of the ancient |
Mayans was presented by the Carnegie
Institution of Washington in an EXHIBIT
it so that school children
might figure in the prehistoric manner;
A recently discovered fash of "colo