Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 44.djvu/639

 to belong to the transition period between the Pliocene and Pleistocene.

In the year 1700, at Cannstadt, Würtemberg, Germany, there was found a portion of a human skull associated with animal remains. Its value was not known until 1835, when Jaeger recognized its importance as evidence of the coexistence of man with the extinct mammals. This appears to have been the first true fossil of man found.

In 1857 a human skeleton was discovered in a limestone cave in the Neanderthal gorge near Hochdal, between Düsseldorf and Elberfeld, Prussia, associated with remains of extinct mammals.



Unfortunately, the value of this find was not known to the workmen who made it, and most of the skeleton was lost. Dr. Fuhlrott, however, succeeded in securing the cranium, both thigh bones, two arm bones (a right radius and a left humerus), and a hip bone (left ilium). In the same year these were described by Dr. Schaffhausen. All the facial bones were lost. The cranium consists only of that portion situated above the roof of the orbits and the superior occipital ridges. This skull has become famous, and is known as the Neanderthal skull. When first found its remarkable peculiarities gave rise to much discussion. Many naturalists considered it a special species or even genus; others