CHAIN OF HUMAN EVOLUTION

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25091, 24 January 1947, Page 8

CHAIN OF HUMAN EVOLUTION

EVIDENCE OF ANCIENT SKULL (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 11 p.m.) NAIROBI, January 23. “The fossilised remains discovered at Sterkfontein in the Transvaal in 1938 are no doubt missing links in the chain of man’s evolution,” Professor Wilfrid le Gros Clark, Professor of Anatomy at Oxford University, told the Pan-African Prehistory Congress. He added that this meant a radical' revision of the ideas held for many years regarding man’s evolution. The Sterkfontein skull had a brain about one-third the size of modern man’s but typically human teeth. Its possessor had walked upright, had soft hands, and bore a striking resemblance to a human.

“Putting it mildly, I am astonished by the results of my studies ” he said. Professor Graham Weddell, of Oxford, a colleague .of Professor Clark, told the “Daily Mail" that the discovery of the fossilised remains answered at last the old question “did man come from monkey.” Professor Weddell said that the answer was “No.” There was an ancestor that was both man and monkey, a middle creature having the characteristics of both. This seemed to be that creature.