The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-03-04
HIGHER RATING
CLAIMED FOR
PILTDOWN MAN
Ancient DWelIer in England
Held Nearer Human Than
Is NeanderthaI Type.
En- Science Scrrice

En- Science SerUice
BERLIN, March 4-Eoanthropus,
the Dawn Man of Piltdown, Eng
land, of all human or near-human
fossils the most knocked-about in
anthropological dispute, has been
given a new Shove-this time up
stairs.
Dr. Hans Weinest, anthropologist
at the Kaiser Wilhelm institute, has
examined the original specimens in
England, and is convinced that
EoanthropuS is more human than
he has been given credit for being
more human, indeed, than Neander-
thai Mainland that he probably is
not as old as he has been considered
by earlier investigators.
DR.. Weinert'S argument turns to
a considerable extent on the Dawn
Mans teeth and lower jaw, which
were found separately from the
fragments of the upper skull. These
hitherto have been considered 70 be
quite definitely ape-like, contrasting
strongly with the massive, but just
as definitely human Uranium.
So great has this contrast ap-
peared to earlier workers that some
of them would not believe that jaw
and cra7ium belonged to the same
being, but held that the skull was a
mans, the jaw an apes.
Teeth Are Human, He Says
But the German investigator
finds that the teeth are human
after all, and is of the opinion that
the jaw and skull do belong to-
gether
The EoanthropuS fossils consist
of two fragmentary crania, half of
a lower jaw containing two molars,
a loose eyetooth and a loose molar.
The pieces of one skull, the jawbone
and the loose eyetooth were found
in a gravel pit at Piltdown, Sussex,
between 1909 and 1913; the pieces
of the second skull and the loose
molar in the same neighborhood,
at a distance of about two miles,
in 1915.
In the gravel stratum were many
bones of extinct animals, including
maStodon, hippopotamuS and rhi-
noceros. These animals were ident-
flied as being of early Ice Age date,
so that the human fossils were as
Sumed to be of equal antiquity, al
though it was recognized that the
gravel deposit, bones and all, might
be secondary, that is, washed in
from elsewhere.
Now, DR.. Weinert states, the
English scientists agree with him
in regarding the animal remains as
older than the human fossils, so
that the great antiquity heretofore
assigned to EoanthropuS at least
is open to question.
Coincidence Is Unlikely
AS for likelihood that the skull
and the teeth belong to two different
creatures, he points out that the
coincidence would have to be twice
repeated, since the loose molar
was found near the second group of
skull fragments, just as the jaw
bone piece and the loose eyetooth
were found near the first.
He feels that the probability of
the pieces really belonging to each
other is greater than the chances of
double coincidence of the same
kind of ape leaving their remains in
the same places.
AS for the apeikeness of the jaw
teeth, he says, the lower jaw is not
so pronouncedly anthropoid as has
been assumed; the teeth are human;
what appears apelike about them
can be found in other human teeth
as we'll"
Stating that he intends soon to
publish his detailed findings in
journal, he adds, IF my work finds
acceptance, then Eoanthropus is no
'Anthropus' and no ape, but
Homo IMAM, indeed more Homo
and therefore more truly human
than the Neanderthaler."
DR.. Weinert's preliminary con-
illusions are contained in a COM
munication to the German scientific
weekly ForSchungen and Fort
Schritte.