Abstract
IN a discussion, and incidentally a criticism on certain points, of the announcement of the discovery in Java of an upper jaw attributed to Pithecanthropus erectas(see NATURE, 144, 926; 1939), Prof. G. Montandon brings forward a suggestion which he argues would resolve certain of the difficulties inherent in apparent discrepancies in the evidence (Rev. Scientifique,78, 1; 1940), and maintains that had Dr. von Koenigswald included the palatal view of the jaw in the figures accompanying the announcement of the find, it would have been evident that Pithecanthropus stands outside the Hominidse. Prof. Montandon says that its shape is that of the LT characteristic or the client or the horseshoe form found in man. Further, the simian diastema separating the incisors and canines is present here, though never found in man. At the same time, this disparity does not warrant classification of the jaw as that of a gibbon or other form of anthropoid. For, as Prof. Montandon goes on to point out, the teeth and especially the canines are not Simian but those of a Hominid. Comparison of the jaw with that of Sinanthropus definitely places the latter as belonging to a more advanced type and within the Hominid group.
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Paratypical Forms in Man's Line of Descent. Nature 145, 545 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1038/145545c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/145545c0