THE “SUSSEX SKULL”

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8355, 15 February 1913, Page 10

THE “SUSSEX SKULL”

SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. MUCH EXCITEMENT AROUSED IN ENGLAND. A race of men who could not talk, w*lio roamed about England before even the first of the several known glacial ages, who lived on roots and shellfish and wild fruit, and dodged the mastodon, the hippopotamus and tho sabretoothed tiger—such is the astonishing link in the story of tho origin of man which leading scientists believe to have been discovered in the ‘‘Sussex skull,” which is supposed to have been not tho skull of a man at all. but of a woman. Tho skull was shown at a meeting or the Geological Society, and next day all the scientists in England wore agog with something like excitement, for it was declared by Dr Smith Woodward, of the South Kensington Natural History Museum, that the type of man to which tho skull belongs has never before .been discovered. In other words, here is a new race of men, in points strongly resembling the apes, but still unquestionably “man,” although devoid of tho power of speech. SEARCH OF YEARS. ,r We have been looking for such a 'missing link’ for years,’ one of tho leading anthropologists said to an “Express” representative, “and here wa have found him. Some years ago a skull of somewhat similar typo was discovered at Neanderthal, in Germany, but in that caso it was doubtful whether tho faculty of speech existed or not. It might have done so, to some extent. Earlier still is the ‘Java man,’ a type whieh, although possessing human points, was more clearly akin to tho apes, and which certainly had no power of speech. “Now for the first time we havs found a race of men who unquestionably could not talk, as we understand balking, but who were as clearly human as the ‘Javaroan’ was not. “The evidence on the point is convincing. The ‘speech centres’ in the brain are, as a distinguished expert on such matters pointed out, so feebly developed that the brain power for speech was non-existent The jaw also has no inside ridge to which the muscles controlling the tongue in ‘talking men’ are attached Thus the power of talking must undoubtedly nave been absent. “Then it is clear that tho front teeth must have been very large and protruding and a man with such teeth could not talk. Yet the back teeth must hav© be©n like human teeth, ano although the jaw, without the evidence of these teeth, resembles the jaw of an ape, tho top of the skull as distinctly resembles that of man, although with .‘only two-fifths of modern mans brain power.” THE AGE OF MAN. Opinions differ to some extent at to the period of time which has elapsed sitice this first of all known human beings chewed roots and shellfish in tne Sussex subtropics, , “Hundreds of -thousands of years, was the view which Dr Smith Woodward gave an “Express” represents kl Professor Keith, tho secretary of tin Anatomical Society of Great Britain, is inclined to place tho non-talking mao back in the days of the Pliocene elephant, or hippopotamus, and ho told an “Express” Representative that the discovery marks oy far tho most remarkable advance In the knowledge of tho ancestry of man over made in England. . . - “It gives us a stag© in the ©volution of man,” he said, “which wo have only imagined since Darwin propounded his theory.” , In Professor Keith’s mew the "Sussox man” was man “still in a simian stage of evolution,” and he holds that the skull supports the conclusions which present-day anthropologists have come to, that in the early days—many hundreds of thousands of years ago—there Were quite different species of mankind existing at the Same time. Some Of tlietj types of man, it is held, died out altogether, while others developed into man as he now* is. The “Sussex man” is only one of ths "missing links” between man and tbs ape, and scientists are now greatly encouraged in their hope that others forming a fairly complete chain, wil, still be discovered. . Next summer a hunt is to be made in Sussex for other prehistoric remains, and great things are hoped for. , ~ Even tho phrase “hundreds of thousands of years” convoys but an indistinct idea of the time that has passed since tho “Sussex man” searched for the elusive shell-fish in the river beds But at that time there was no North Sea, and lions, hears, and rhinoceroses enjoyed life in Southern England,