Evening star., 1933-07-24
Discoveries Give Evidence
Ancestors of Present Race
Started There.
FOSSIL BONES ARE LIKE
THOSE OF MAN OF TODAY
Origin of Species Hitherto Placed
in Central Asia or Europe
by Anthropologists.
BY THOMAS X. HENRY.

The cradle OF the human race, the
actual Garden of Eden, was East Africa.
New discoveries are providing strong
evidence that the homididae-the ZOO
logical genus to which man belongs -
spread over the earth some time in the
late pliocene geological era just before
the great Ice Ages from some African
focus where they first appeared, Sir Ar
thur Smith woodward, celebrated Brit
1sh anthropologist, reported to the Com
Jnittee on Fossil Man of the Interna-
tional Geological Congress here today.
The essential evidence presented was
the recent finding of fossil bones, prac-
tically indistinguishabl from homo
sapiens-the only extant species of the
homididae-associated with bones of
early Ice Age elephants in the Tan
ganyika territory, while other species of
the genus existing at the same time
were considerably more primitive in
their development. At the same time,
the crude stone tools found associated
with the African bones were no more
advanced than those of the apelike
early PleiStocene men of Europe and
Asia.
Thought ir Central Asia.
Hitherto the origin of the race has
been placed by most anthropologists in
Europe or Central Asia.
At the beginning of the Ice Ages,
Sir Arthur said, the latest discoveries
have shown that there were four dis
tinct species Of man scattered over
Eurasia from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
One Of the eoanthropus of Piltdown
man, established from a skull, a canine
tooth, lower jaw and a nasal bone,
discovered in some gravel deposits not
far from London. These fossils, with
which Sir Arthur himself has been most
prominently associated, have been the
subject of wide controversy. Recent
intensive geological study Of the region,
he said, has shown clearly that the
and date from warm interval when
the strange half-human creature was
living in association with an enormous
elephant with a femur feet long
and other animals which were extinct
in later pleistocene stages. Sometimes
a much greater age has been assigned
to the Piltdown deposits.
The other species of homididae, asso-
ciated with much the same sort Of ami
NAL remains, were the Heidelburg man,
OF which single jawbone has been
found in Germany; the celebrated
pithecanthropus of Java. and the re-
Gently discovered sinanthropus OF
China, on which a special report has
been prepared for the congress by its
discoverer, Prof. Davidson Black. Geo.
logical researches, Sir Arthur said show
clearly that these four. which differed
very greatly from each other, were es-
sentially contemporaneous and were all
very primitive.
Apparently all had become extinct be-
fore the middle of the ice-age period,
and a single species, many fossils OF
which have been found over Europe and
Asia, had taken their places. This was
the Neanderthal race-the beetle
browed, long-armed, STOPPING ogres OF
old fairy tales-who were still very far
from the species Of homo represented by
the living races. Although all the
Neanderthal finds have been GROUPED
in one species, Sir Arthur pointed out,
they show great individual variation.
This has been interpreted as indicating
that they we're in an evolutionary stage,
where different forms were being pro-
duced rapidly, one Of which was the
ancestor Of modern man.
Leave New Species.
Toward the close Of the Ice Ages the
sNeanderthalers disappeared and new
species of man appeared in Europe who
was essentially the same as man today
and probably is the ancestor of the liv-
ing races Nobody ever has been able
to find where he came from, although
fossil remains have been hunted in
tensively over Europe and Central Asia.
Here, Sir Arthur told the anthropolo-
gists. they probably are on the wrong
track.
The Tanganyika deposits were found
last year. The elephant and other
bones were unquestionably early pleis-
tocene contemporaneous with the Pilt-
down and Heidelberg species of man.
The human bones were unquestionably
those Of man today, even to the high
cheek bone and the defect of crowded
teeth. Because Of this they were dis
counted at first being attributed to
fairly recent burial in a pleistocene de-
posit
The difficulty of accepting this, Sir
Arthur said, lay in the undoubtedly
human artifacts found with these bones.
They were cruder and simpler in de-
sign than any of the eoliths found in
association with dawn man deposits in
Europe. Anthropology, Sir Arthur said,
is almost driven to accepting physical
homo sapiens with a culture less ad-
vanced than that of his brutelike rela-
tiveS
A biological law generally accepted
at present, Sir Arthur said, is that
there are two periods Of great indi-
vidual variability IN a race of plants
and animals. One is that of its great
est vitality, when it is giving rise to
new species. The other is during its
decline, when it is striving desperately
and hopelessly to save itself from ex-
tinction in an environment to which
ttAis no longer adjusted. The Mean
derthal variability, he holds, must be
placed IN the later class.
Spreads in Territory.
Another biological law, he pointed out,
Is that the species of a genus, tend
to spread out from the point of origin
to- the limits of the territory suited to
maintain them in all directions-but
that the more primitive move first and
farthest under pressure of the more
highly developing types which remain
and attain their highest development
at the focus Under this law the four
early ice-age homididae represented
some Of natures early experiments to-
ward the creation of man who were
pushed out of East Africa by the higher
products of human evolution. Then
came the Neanderthalers who pushed
them further and further north, east
and west until they reached the limits
and became extinct.
Meantime the sitting out process IN
East Africa was producing true man
who finally became crowded in the
narrow limits of the homeland and
moved northward himself, displacing
the Neanderthalers as they had dis
placed the Pitdown and Heidelberg
homididae. Under the more favorable
conditions of this new habit at homo
sapiens achieved higher reaches Of art
and Of culture, and from him arose
the white, black and yellow races Of
today.