MAN'S ORIGIN

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 55, 7 March 1927, Page 4

MAN'S ORIGIN

STEPS IN EVOLUTION

AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM -COLLECTION

Man's origin at a glance, aeons upon •aeons of Nature's striving packed in a glass case, that is tSie wealth of instruction • and 1 fascination which the Australian Museum authorities, have provided, for the public, states the "Sydney Morning Herald." The glass case" in question contains a collection of;: skull casts, illustrating the evolution of man from the earliest known manlike remains. It is being arranged .V.y....Mr. W. W. Thorpe, the Museum's ethnologist, and will be complete with photographs and explanatory letterpress within a short time. !'

Whatever views one might hold about man's origin, and however one ;might construe the scientific evidence regarding•■'■ his origin, one would at least-be consummately dull not to be fascinated: by the evidence itself. And 'tlxer.e;.in':the museum, taking less than a^'dozen.paces, one may view the evidence, presented more graphically and more .convincingly than any book could-flo. ..A sight of it would be a cure : : for pessimism, for there one sees incontrovertible evidence of Nature's striving, through "our dead selves" to higher. things. The upward course of effort, which those lifeless casts proclaim* .the urgency of Nature's aim in betterments—is surely the hope of civilisation to-day. , iv ■ ■ , .' -This -.interesting- ease, ': containing nearly 40 specimens, has been placed in the osteological room near the skeletona." .. They consist chiefly of plaster casts of 'human ancestral skulls, but include conjectural restorations of the busts of three varieties of primitive inaii.: The series, which is arranged in progressive order, begins with the Ape-man of Java, whose skull cap indicates a creature at once so ape-like, yet exhibiting characteristics .so human-like, that it has been called the "missing link." The bust of this apeman, conjecturally restored, reveals him as a creature of rather forbidding aspect,' with beetling brows and brutal jaw. One's belief in scientific deduction receives something of a shriek till it is remembered that the ape-man of Java has been dead half a million years.. ...

: The ' next specimen, the Piltdown Man, represents the oldest human race. The remains-were discovered in Sussex, England; in' 19121 A single jaw, massive 'a.nd brutal, is what we have to tell us of: a. later race of men. This speciincn. belongs to the Heidelberg Man, who '•Jived about 250,000 years ago. The Neanderthal Man - comes next, and represents a race which! must have been fairly "numerous at one time in Europe, for many of their remains have been found. There is evidence, also, that they! lived in caves, hunted, and used weapons 'of roughly flaked stone. The Neanderthal Man was brutish in appearance, short and squat.

,It is then something of a relief to turn to the next specimen, which gives some; idea of what the Cromagnon race looked like. This type of man has be ( en -graced with the ethnological name, which we ourselves bear-^-Homo sapiens—and is a creature far superior to the Neanderthal man, whom, it is believed, he droyo out -of Europe by reason of his greater brain power.

Indeed,' to look at the restoration in plaster "of: this man's head is reassuring. While it is massive, yet.there appears ..-'a. brow which, though it'could liot /by any means be called: high or intellectukl, certainly argues a kindliness and makes ono think that after all those of the Cromagnon race must have been quite Hkoablo fellows. His habits seem to strengthen this view. He lived in caves, but possessed a strong artistic sense, and decorated the walls of his caves with drawings of tho animals which ho saw about him. These for their truthfulness and delicacy, aro really amazing. They havo been found in caves in France and Spain. Tho Crdmagnou raco becamo extinct, but it is maintained by somo scientists that it hns left traces in the present-day population of Europe.

TJio next apocimen shows the Neolithic; Man who appeared in Europe after the clpso of the last glaciation' of the Northern Hemisphere. Ho had stone implements of bettor make than any of tho preceding races, and had loarned to mako and uso the bow and arrow.

Skulls of . tho Australian . aboriginal, which one authority asserts migtyt sevvc as a common ancestor for all tho modern races, have been included, for purposes of comparison.