shovel had caused the two halves to separate along the line of symphysis. It was discolored, and marked by incrustations of sand exactly as are all fossil bones from the Mauer sands. A limestone pebble was so firmly cemented to the left half of the jaw, covering the premolars and first two molars, that the crowns of all four stuck to the pebble when the latter was removed. Both the jaw and the pebble were marked by dendritic formations.
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Perhaps the first thing to attract one's attention is the absence of a chin (pl. 13). The region of the symphysis is somewhat gorilloid, while the ascending ramus suggests rather the gibbon. The teeth, however, have a distinctly human stamp, not only in their general appearance, but also in point of size—larger than the average, but smaller than in exceptional cases to be found among the Australians, for instance. One is impressed, in fact, by the relative smallness of the teeth as compared with the massive jaw in the case of Homo heidelbergensis. The alveolar arch is almost long enough, for example, to allow space for a fourth molar. I noted the same phenomenon in a collection of recent crania from Gazelle Peninsula, New Britain.[1] In one of these the alveolar arch of the upper jaw
- ↑ American Anthropologist, 1902, n.s., vol. 4, 474.
