"IT IS THE MISSING LINK."

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1666, 5 February 1913, Page 6

"IT IS THE MISSING LINK."

SCIENTIST'S OPINION OF. AN , ANCIENT SKULL.

Extraordinary interest has been aroused among anthropologists by tho discovery of portions of a prehistoric woman's skull in a gravel-bed at, Pilt Down-Common, Sussex. In 6omo quarters it is even bclievcdythat this skull, from certain ape-liko characteristics, may prove tho existence of the "missing link"—or the most important of several "missing links"—in the chain of evolution from an ape-liko ancestor to man.

Mr. Dawson, a member of tho Geological Society, stated that he believed the skull to represent a hitherto unknown species of man which lived from fifty to a hundred thousand years ago." The brain is much smaller than that of an ordinary human being, the jaw being much larger and the skull itself fully half an inch thicker." •■--■■■

"That this skull, representing a, hitherto unknown human species, is tho missing link, I for one havo not the slightest doubt," said Dr. Arthur -Smith Woodward, of tho Geological Department of tho British Museum, who helped to recover tho skull. "This discovery takes us back nearer to the sourco and origin of the first living crcaturo than any discovery ever made before.

"Hitherto the nearest approach discovered to a species from which we might have been said to hayo descended was tho 'cavo man'; but authorities have constantly asserted that wc did not spring direct from tho 'cavo men.' Whoro then was the missing link in the chain of our evolution ? To me, at any rate, tlid answer lies in tho Pilt Down skull, for wo enmo direct from a species almost entirely ape. "There is, of course, ono—thcro may bo more—missing link; but if wo aro to find them wo shall havo to discover human remains of greater antiquity than thoso brought to light at Pilt Down. Such a discovery, to my mind, would bring us to almost a puro ape. "The most significant thing about this discovery does not so much lio in Ihe fact that tho brain is infinitely, smaller than that of nn ordinary human being, or that tho jaw is tho jaw of a chimpanzee; but in the fact, proved beyond doubt from tho shape of tho jaw, that the crcaturo when alivo had not tho power of speech. But that it had some brain is certain. Therefore, in the evolution of tho human species tho brain camo first and speech was a growth of a later ago. This point about the creature's brain and its inability lo speak is In be thoroughly discussed by Professor Elliot Smith before tho . Itoval Society in February,