Abstract
IN the course of a discussion of the significance of the Bushman skull (Soologiesa Navorsing v. die Nas. Mus., Bloemfontein, 1, 3-4), Dr. T. F. Dreyer contends that the genus Homo at a very early date evolved along three independent linesNeanderthal, the Eurasian and the Bushman. The Bushman, in the smallness and orthognathism of the face, the steepness of the forehead, and the flatness of the dorsal profile, shows features, in which it resembles the juvenile skull. It is here suggested that this ‘foetalization’ (Bolk) is not due to an adult retention of juvenile features, but is a precocious assumption of the adult. This explains the fact that a Bushman baby of about twelve months is already a Bushman, and differs distinctly from the babies of other races, as does the adult Bushman from other adults. This difference is thus due to the projection of adult features into the earlier ontogenetic stages.
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The Bushman Skull. Nature 139, 37 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/139037a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/139037a0