Evening star., 1935-09-07

OF Pithecanthropus Many believe that
their blood is represented in the human
stock today through direct ancestry.
They were not quite true men. but
beyond much doubt belonged to the
same family.
1t was not until 1882 that any more
Pithecanthropus bones were found.
These also came to Prof. Dubois labora-
tory, and the first announcement con-
cerning them was made last Summer.
They were found within less than so
yards from the site of the first diScov-
cry, and undoubtedly belonged to the
same deposit. They comprised large
portions of four other thigh bones. The
whole collection now included remains
of four individuals from which it was
possible to make much more accurate
reconstruction of the type.
From them Prof Dubois has built up
q picture of a decidedly apelike animal.
The thigh bones were such as must have
belonged to an animal whose habitual
form of locomotion was walking along
the branches Of large trees or on the
uneven ground of mountainous regions.
In all probability he was tree dweller,
like the gibbons of today. who are its
closest extant relatives. He must have
walked at times, Prof. Dubois concludes,
on all fours, and the need of the hand
in locomotion must have prevented the
finer differentiation of this organ and
the corresponding differentiation of the
brain found in human beings. In any
event, Pithecanthropus was not a crea-
ture that walked like man. Neither
did he thinks like a man.
The intensive study of these new bones
has led Prof. Dubois to classify the ami
NAL as most probably one of the great
apes belonging to the least manlike FAM
ny-that OF the siamang and the glib
bOnS. True, it was an extraordinary
gibbon. 1t was far larger animal than
any existing members of the family and
with by far the largest brain of any
anthropoid ape known to mammalogists.
Presumably Prof. Dubois would consider
the generalized gibbon stock as ancestral
to man, with Pithecanthropus as an off,
shoot in the human direction. The
gorillas, chimpanzees and orang -utans
may have branched OF earlier, becom-
ing highly advanced and specialized
creatures in their own ways, which were
different from the ways of human
evolution.
Few anthropologists in recent years
have considered PithecanthropuS actu-
ally as ancestral to modern man. He
has been considered rather as q species
of man. DR.. Dubois conclusion is that
he is a species of gibbon instead-how-
ever far removed from any Of his living
close relatives. The discoverer now con-
cludes that the animal did not have the
power of speech, one character which,
probably above all others, differentiates
the human being from the rest Of man.
NAL creation.
With this elimination Of the Java
man from the human family, the honor
of being the Adam Of the anthropolo-
gists-in respect to remains thus far
discovered-goes to q grotesque creature
living in Germany more than 100000
years ago the Se-called Heidelberg
man. This creature is known only from
q single bone-a lower jaw. The only
other claimant for the honor Is the
Eoanthropus, or dawn man, of Eng
land, whose remains are such a mix
ture of human and chimpanzeelike char
acters that anthropologists never have
agreed as to whether they could pos
sibly have existed In the same animal.