Evening star., 1939-09-04
Skulls Seen Link
Between 7 Ancient
Types Of Humanity
British Scientists Get
Reports on Finds
In South Africo
BY THOMAS HENRY,
Star stan Correspondent,


Star Stan Correspondent.
DUNDEE, Scotland (By AirmaiD -
Ancient human skulls found in
South Africa In the past few years
may constitute missing link" be-
tween Neanderthal and Cro-Mag-
non man, two fundamental types
of ancient humanity. according to
reports prepared for presentation
before the British Association for
the Advancement of Science here by
two South African anthropologists.
Neanderthal skulls, found scat
tered over the old world, are those
of an almost ape-like creature, a
cave-dweller of the early days of
the last ice-age, with stopped back,
long arms and big ridges over his
eyes. In Europe and Asia he dis
appeared as the ice-age advanced,
and the start OF the present geo.
logical period found the caves in
habited by vastly superior type
with a brain equal to that of man
of the present, an accomplished
hunter and artist. This was the
Cro-Magnon man, similar in type
to the present-day Eskimo, who may
be in the direct ancestral line of
modern man.
The link, according to Prof. Ray
mond Dart, South African anthro-
pologist. may be found in the So
called Florisbad skull, found in AZ
rica few years ago.
Africa had its Neanderthals. One
of the type specimens Of this an
cient race of human beings is the
Rhodesian man, whose skull was
discovered about Is years ago. 1t is,
in some important respects. more
primitive than similar skulls dug up
in Europe and Asia 1t also had its
Cro-Magnons, represented by the
so-called Boskop type, whose re-
mains have been found scattered
from the Southern Sahara to Cape
Town. This race represented an
advanced type of primitive culture.
Two Types Still Found.
The Florisbad skull, DR.. Dart said,
Is intermediate between the two and
might have given rise to either type.
Weight is lent to this hypothesis,
Dr. Dart pointed out, by the fact
that both Neanderthal-like and Cro-
Magnon-like types are still to be
found among the present-day
bushmen, who preceded the Negro
in Africa. They may be directly
derived from the ancient peoples
Curiously enough, he said, the two
types seem to be sex-linked, as are
certain hereditary diseases Of mod
ern man including the bleeding
disease" of the Hapsburg family.
They pass only from the mother to
the male descendants or from the
father to the female descendants.
The present evidence, he said, in
dicates that the "Cro-Magnon
branch of the ancient Africans had
built up a material culture in most
ways equal to that of the same peo-
piles in Europe, where their artistic
achievements on the walls Of caves
have stirred the admiration of mod
ern artists. This culture was far
in advance Of that of Bantus, q
Negro race which has occupied the
area in historic times and which
apparently is descended from in
vaders from the North.
At the same meeting DR.. Robert
Broom, South African paleontologist
who has discovered some of the most
significant of these human remains
told of two types of African apes
existing approximately $4,000 years
ago and disappearing in the last ice
age, who may constitute real miss
ing links between the anthropoid
and human lines.
Teeth Resemble Modern Mans.
'In structure" he said, "all the
teeth closely resemble those of mod
ern man. They differ very mark
edly from those of the chimpanzee
and the gorilla. The milk teeth
especially, are of human type ano
differ greatly from those of the liv-
ing anthropoids. We can be quite
certain from this evidence that these
ice-age anthropoids are much more
closely related to man than are the
chimpanzee or the gorilla.
1Hcy are IOO ldIc III tlIle, now
ever, to have been ancestral to man
However, we seem justified in con.
cluding that they are only slightly
modified survivors of apes which
lived In Africa and perhaps ir
Southern Asia, and that it was from
some member of this family thai
man originated
These finds, DR.. Broom declared
place mans origin in the world rela.
lively late-possibly just before tn,
start of the last ice age, since hi.
. immediate predecessors survived tt
that period.
He believes that both these type.
were apes. There is serious ques.
tion, said DR.. Dart in discussing tn,
paper, whether they may not b,
considered to have crossed the lin,
Of humanity. In that case the,
would constitute by far the mos
primitive types of man yet found or
earth, so close to the apes that they
can barely be differentiated from
them.
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