THE RHODESIAN SKULL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18513, 25 March 1922, Page 10

THE RHODESIAN SKULL

TYPICALLY HUMAN PALATE. A SERIES OF MISSING LINKS. (From Our Own Correspondent! LONDON, January 26. Keen interest still centres round the primitive skull which was unearthed by Mr W. 10. Barron (formerly of Dunedin), at Broken Hill mine, Rhodesia, and the bearing of this discovery on previous theoriee of the origin of man was discussed bv Dr A. Smith Woodward, keeper of the Geological Department at University College. Ho said the first impressive fact about the skull waa its freshness. Only three definite cases had been discovered of remains of man dating back to the remote pre-burial time. The most' important of them waa that rf the man discovered some 12 veal's ago by Mr Charles Dawson ftt Piltdowh, Sussex. The ekull had been preserved practically intact, and was a most valuable link between man and his ape-like ancestor. In quite modern times a most important specimen of the Neanderthal man was discovered bv the French in a little cave at La Chapelle, In tire south-west of France. In that specimen several features resembled the ape, particularly in the shape of the ekull, the prominent brow ridges, and in the length of the face. It was necessary to consider how the new fossil recently found in Rhodesia compares with those earlier discoveries. After comparing the three skulls, Dr Woodward summarised his deductions in the observation that in the Rhodesian fossil they had a creature reminiscent of the gorilla, whereas in the La Chapelle fossil they had a creature reminiscent of the chimpanzee. The palate of the Rhodesian skull, however, was typically human. It was beautifully domed, and there was no doubt that its owner possessed a very fine voice. “He was a fine singer or else a very fine howler, probablv tho° latter." —(Laughter.) The canine teeth v/erc just as typically human as our own, and the arrangement of the mouth was eo modern that even tho wisdom teeth were disappearing. That had never been seen before in a primitive type of man. Another extraordinary fact proved by the fossil was that the man in life suffered from caries, and there were (races of root abscesses having penetrated. the jaw-bone. But the most important fact of all was the way into the brain cavity, which was exactly similar in its formation tr. that of modem man. "How are we to interpret this new man in the tonus of what we know already?" naked Dr Woodward. "I think it is perfectly clear that he belongs to an entirely new race. He is certainly not the European Neanderthal man. At the present day there is no doubt that we may regard the white race as the highest and tho black race as the lowest, but although in a general wav that is true, there is no graduated aeries from tho one to tho other. There are traces of the an© in ns which are not to be found even in the blacks. There are, of course, more traces in the black? that are not to bo found in i-s, but there is no dear and definite 'ine, and every fresh discovery that '3 made seems to add to our' perplcsitc. The Rhodesian mail is merely one of the last, links in the chain, and it is perfectly certain vc shall have to find many species varying ; u different directions, and wait a long time before we got a connected series of missing links winch will be convincir ”