Evening star., 1935-12-05

New evidence Of the descent of man
from tree-dwelling ancestors Is pre-
sented by DR.. Charles B. Davenport,
noted biologist Of the Carnegie. Institu-
ton of Washington, in report to the
American Society of Mammalogists.
From the earliest stages of life before
birth about to the time OF adolescence
the length of the human arm relative to
the leg is declining, as Is also the length
of the lower arm in relation to the
upper arm. At one stage the arms are
longer than the legs and the lower arm
is longer than the upper arm. Both OF
these pre-human relationships, however.
are corrected early in life. as the child
turns to the specifically human road OF
development.
The early-length relationships show,
DR.. Davenport holds, stages in the evolu-
ton of the species on the theory that
each individual repeats in an abbrevi-
ated fashion the life history of the race.
The findings suggest clearly, he holds,
that man came from long armed an
cestry-possibly from group which is
represented most closely today by the
gibbons. GorillaS and chimpanzeeS have
followed much the same evolutionary
road away from tree-dwelling creatures.
The evidence is important in the mega
tive proof 1t affords that mans ancestry
is not to be found among quadrupeds,
where the lengths Of the limbs are ap-
proximately equal, nor among the lemur-
like forms Of the primate family, where
the progress of the arm-leg index from
birth to maturity follows an entirely
different sort of curve.
The findings. DR.. Davenport stresses.
throw doubt especially on the possible
descent of man from some creature re-
motely resembling the weird, nocturnal
tarsius of Madagascar, whose limb de-
velopment has been in the direction of q
hopping, rather than climbing,
existence.
DR.. Davenport also makes comparisons
between man and two other mammal
bipeds-the kangaroos and the jumping
mice. Both have taken to walking on
their hind legs, with the result that the
fore legs are greatly shortened-much
more, relatively, than the human arms.
Both are quite obviously derived from
a quadruped ancestry. II the same were
true of man and the manlike apes, DR..
Davenport points out, their arms would
be much shorter than actually is the
case.
There are no strains of Melanesian
or Australoid blood in the American In
dian, declares DR.. Ales Hrdlicka, curator
of physical anthropology of the Smith
sonian Institution, after a painstaking
survey of all the evidence brought to
light to date on this point.
He finds, he declares in his report, no
reliable basis for any assumption that
the. black-skinned people of the Indian
Ocean and the Australian Continent
ever reached the shores either OF North
or South America in suficient numbers
to have left any racial imprint on the
essentially Mongoloid Indian.
DR.. Hrdlicka has gone back to al the
original sources Of the theory. They con-
sist of q few scattered skeletal remains,
distorted reports of missionaries and
explorers with little knowledge OF an
tnropology, and snap judgments based on
the superficial appearance OF some OF
the more primitive Indian tribes. All
the evidence, he says, is very superficial,
and even If it were received at its face
value would not justify the interpreta-
tions placed upon it.
True, Dr. Hrdlicka says, skulls son1e-
times are found that seem to At into
Melanesisn series, but they are net be-
yond the normal variation Of members
Of the yellow race. After demolishing,
bit hy bit. the specific eyidence On.