THAT MISSING LINK.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1066, 20 February 1913, Page 4

THAT MISSING LINK.

WHAT THE SUSSEX SKULL REVEALS.

WOMAN 200,000 YEARS AGO. The cables have been telling us of the Sussex skull. Through the dark forests of our land there roamed, many hundreds of thousands of years ago, a strange, hairy ape-}ike creature, a female member of a curious race, irom whom all other animals shrank. She was a new type, possessing a new cunning, and an amazing power over the other denizens of the forest, for she could what they could not—use implements, and clothe herself in skins.

She was the ancestress ot the English race of to-day, and her skull, which was discovered in Sussex, was recently exhibited before the Geological Society. Now scientists are endeavouring to formulate some idea of her appearance and habits. What was fhe apd fooyy she live ?

This ancestress qf the human race in England had some resemblance to a chimpanzee, walking with a shuffling gait. Her body was probably covered with hair. She could not speak, but as she ambled along she uttered strange apises. When she was hungry she dug roots and vegetables from the ground and devoured them just as they were. Living among the rocks, the only protection she possessed from the cold wa,s a skin, rudely fashioned in the form of a cloak. When she hunted she used no dogs to help her track for prey; she and her companions followed their quarry and killed it with a stone spear or hatchet.

This was the picture of the possessor of the Sussex skull, drawn by Dr. Smith Woodward, of the South Kensington Natural History Museum.

“She lived/' said Dr. Smith Woodward, “in either the pleistocene or the early pliocene period. If she lived in the former, most of the existing topography of this part of Europe was already formed, the only difference being that the bed ni the North Sea and English Channel was dry land, through which rjvgrs flmyed. Jf she lived in the pliocene period, her age goes back so far that scarcely any of the existing topographical features were then evident.

“The skull is the oldest ever yet seen, and belongs to the lowest type of human being yet found, In most respgcfe she has the appearanpe pf a chimpanzee, yet certain features of her brain which characterise the human race were just beginning to show.

PREPARING FOR SPEECH. “According to Professor Elliot Smith, that part of the brain directly connected with the faculty of speech was only just beginning to be prominent, and it is curious that the brain should prepare for this faculty before the organs that are to exercise it are ready. “Another curious point is that, although it has been shown, judging from the discoveries, that this creature used tools and implements, the monkey race have not given any proof that they have the intelligence to do so. “Recently an ourang-outang escaped at the Zoo, and I am told that when beaten with a stick it managed to snatch it away, but it simply placed the stick out of reach of the keepers, and made no attempt to retaliate on them. “The brain of our creature was not quite twice as large as that of an ape, but was as large as that of the lowest type of savage—the Australian aboriginal or the Tasmanians. The latter are now extinct. “The brain ot these savages corresponds to that of the earliest known cave men, who came thousands ot years after the owner of the skull. “The cave men were different from the ordinary man in one or two respects. The slightly bent thigh-bone suggests that they did not walk so upright as ourselves. They had longer arms, too, more like those of an ape. “If our creature belongs to a still earlier race, she was certainly more ape-like in gait, and if the climate was the same as it is now it is possible that the body was covered with hair. DIET OF UNWASHED ROOTS. “ The thickness of the skull suggests outdoor life, and the teeth are ground down in a way that human teeth are not usually ground : they indicate a root and vegetable diet, mixed with dust and sand, accidentally introduced. The roots would be eaten just as they were taken from the soil, Without washing or cooking. This race probably had no knowledge of fire. “The stone implements found by the skull were rude in design, and were employed in preparing skins, also in cutting wood. “It is pretty certain that this was a race of wandering hunters. They had no domestic animals, for no bones of any have been found.

“ They sheltered behind rocks, and, without having power to articulate as we have, could doubtless call to one another and make one another understand with strange noises, just as monkeys do.

“ She was not the missing link ; she was a misssing link between the monkeys and ourselves.” Expert opinions differ as to the date when the pliocene period became the pleistocene. It may be taken that the skull of the Sussex “ woman ” is roughly about 200,000 years old.