Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/171

Rh ENVIRONMENT OF THE APE MAN

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���'IQ. 2. Skbtch Map showinq Pbobablb Land Comnbctions in thb South- \^281^iSN Asiatic Begion in ths Bablt Plbibtocsnix 1, Location of Trinll fossil ^gnu and floras. 2, Location of Pliocene Slwalik faunas. 3, Location of Pleisto- cene Narbada faunas.

��lowland animals and plants were able to spread simoltaneonsly towarci the southeast. The relative elevation of the Himalayan region and a slight lowering of temperature combined with the pressure of population were sufiQeient to cause this organic flood to gradually spread to the southward.

The Pithecanthropus or Trinil men as pictured to us by the anthro- pologists were of low intelligence, as is indicated by the slight develop- ment of the frontal region of the brain, by their cranial capacity of from 850 to 900 cubic centimeters as compared with 600 cubic centimeters for the largest simian brain and 1,200 cubic centimeters for the Neanderthal men of the Third Interglacial period. Prom a study of the inside of the cranium of the Trinil man it is estimated that the lower frontal lobe, the speech center, was twice as well developed as in any existing anthro- poid ape, but still only about half that of Modern man, so it seems certain that the Trinil race possessed at least a rudimentary power of speech.

The remains of the fauna that was contemporaneous with the ape man include fifteen species of land and fresh-water snails and river clams, all of which are still living and in the same general region at the present time. There are several genera of fresh-water fishes; a gavial very close to the existing armored crocodile of the Ganges and a true crocodile dose to the existing crocodile of Java and Borneo. Five river and swamp turtles have been described, all similar to living types of farther India and the Sunda islands. Among the birds were parrots

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