Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/180

Rh 166 APE [DISTRIBUTION. Gestation in the lower Simiadce lasts about seven months, but in the Hapalince only three months. Menstruation occurs periodically, but the excretion is less sanguineous than in the human species. In the lower Simiadw it is chiefly manifested by a turgescence of the external organs, which may extend widely in the parts adjacent, and even beneath the tail. Lactation lasts, in the better known forms, for an average of six months, and the young are carried at the breast in a very human attitude, DISTRIBUTION IN TIME. There appears as yet to be no evidence of the existence of apes earlier than during the Miocene period. This absence of evidence must by no means be taken as a con clusive proof of their non-existence, since, as Dr Falconer has pointed out, we ought not to expect to find ape fossils often. We ought not to expect this, because the agility and arboreal life of these animals enable them to escape local inundations, and other causes of destruction and speedy burial, to which more sluggish and terrestrial animals are exposed. When they fall dead they are almost immediately devoured by carnivorous animals and feeders on carrion, and it is owing to this that their remains are so rarely found in India, on which account the Hindoos believe that they bury their dead. Two teeth found in Suffolk were at first described by Professor Owen as those of apes, under the title Macacus eoccenus. This opinion, however, he has since withdrawn. 1 A fragment of a right, maxilla, from Soleure in Switzer land, was described by Rutimeyer in 1862, under the name Ccenojrithecus lemuroides. But the recent discovery of fossil lemurs in France renders the ape character of this fragment (which was always doubtful) still more un certain. When we enter upon Miocene deposits we find plentiful and unquestionable remains of apes now extinct. In India, in the Sewalik hills, the astragalus of a Semnopithecus (resembling S. entellus] has been found. Also jaws and teeth of other forms allied to Semnopithecus and Macacus have been discovered, one with an upper jaw nearly as large as that of the existing orang. These fossils, how ever, exhibit no remarkable difference in form from the bones of existing apes. In Europe a very remarkable ape fossil, named Dryo- jnthecus fontani (Lartet), has been found at Saint Gaudens in France. A lower jaw and humerus were there obtained, but isolated teeth have also been met with in the Suabian Alps. This creature was an ape belonging to the highest sub-family, Simiinae, and was allied to Hylobates, but cf greater bulk than any existing gibbon. Two other species of ape have been found allied to Hylo- bates, but of smaller size than Dryopithecus, and show ing some probable affinity to Semnopithecus. These are Pliopithecus antiquus (Lartet), and P. platyodon (Bieder- inann). Of the former, two imperfect lower jaws were found in fresh- water deposit at Sansan, near Auch, in France ; while of the latter, an upper jaw has been found in Zurich at Elgg, in the upper fresh-water Molasse there. Another ape (probably of the Simiinai), of which a lower jaw has been found in the lignite bed at Monte Bauiboli in Tuscany, has been named by G. M. Gervais, OreopitJiecus bamlolii. M. Gaudry has also found a rich deposit of ape relics at Pikermi in Greece. He has sent thence to Paris parts of as many as twenty-five individuals, while other remains are preserved in Munich, and no less than five crania at Milan. These remains have been placed by Wagner in a new 1 Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist. 1862, p. 240. genus, Mesopithecus. They are very interesting, as show ing a somewhat intermediate structure compared with living apes. The cranium and dentition bear affinity to Semnopithecus, but the limbs are rather those of Macacus. Certain fragments found at Eppelsheim. (in strata of the same geological age as the Pikermi deposits) have also been attributed to the former genus; while five mandibula, found at Steinheim in Wurternberg, have received the name, from Fraas, of Semnopithecus grandwvus. Amongst the rich pala3ontological treasures which have recently been found in the North American Miocene deposits are certain teeth and fragments, which, it has been sug gested, may be those of apes. At present, however, their nature is quite problematical, though the presence of apes at that period in America would be a fact of extreme interest, if sufficient remains could be found to determine whether such apes were Simiadai or Cebidw, or forms inter mediate between the two. The Pliocene deposits have not yet yielded much in the way of ape remains. Some teeth from Montpellier (found in fresh-water marl) have been named Semnopithecus Monspessulamis by M. Gervais, while part of a lower jaw from the same locality has been called Macacus priscus. Other fragments of jaws, and some teeth of Macaci, have been found in the Val d Arno, and are preserved at Pisa, Turin, and Florence. A single tooth from Grays, Essex, has been described by Professor Owen as Macacus plio- cvenus. In America, besides the Miocene fragments before re ferred to, numerous bones of Mi/cetes and other genera have been found in the caves of Brazil. These, however, appear to be, geologically speaking, quite recent, and they closely resemble the bones of apes now living in that region. For further details as to fossil apes, an article may be referred to (a translation from the Italian) by Major Forsyth, in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, for the month of September 1872. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. The apes are, as far as is yet certainly known, at present almost confined to tropical latitudes. Their most northern limits in the Old World are Gibraltar (Macacus inuus), Moupin, in Thibet (Macacus thibetanus and Semnopithecus roxeUanai), and Japan (Macacus speciosus). In the New World the highest northern latitude certainly known to be attained is 18 or 19 (Ateles melanochir) in Southern Mexico, but they possibly reach even latitude 23. Father David, however, sees no reason (considering the severity of the climate of Moupin) why apes should not also be found in the mountains of Northern China, and the natives have repeatedly assured him they are to be found there. Southwards, apes are found to near the Cape of Good Hope, and the island of Timor (Macacus cynomolgus), in the Indian Archipelago, in the Old World, and to about 30 in Brazil and Paraguay, in the New World. As to vertical extent, a Semnopithecus has been seen near Simlah, at a height of 11, 000 feet; Dr Hooker saw monkeys in the Himalaya at an elevation above 8000 feet; and Semnopi thecus roxellanae and Macacus thibetanus were found by Father David inhabiting the Snowy Mountains of Moupin, in Thibet, at an elevation of about 3000 metres, where frost and snow last several months. In Miocene times the ape range was more extensive namely, to Greece, Tuscany, the South of France, Zurich, Wiirtemberg, and even to Essex. Some of the localities richest in monkeys are islands, such as Ceylon, Borneo, Sumatra, and Java ; and apes are also found in Trinidad, and the island of Fernando Po.