Abstract
THE size of this volume is a sufficient proof of the energy with which the study of biology and the related sciences is carried on in the capital of the Argentine Republic, more especially by the professors and officials of the national museum. Two papers in the present issue by Dr. F. Ameghino, the director of the museum, both dealing with the presence of a perforation in the astragalus of certain recent and extinct mammals, have been already mentioned in thee columns. The bulk of the volume is, however, occupied by an article by Dr. E. L. Holmberg on the Amyrilidace indigenous to and cultivated in Argentina, and a second, by Mr. F. F. Outes, on the Stone age in Patagonia. In the latter the author describes stone implements of all descriptions, from rude flint flukes and scrapers to beautifully chipped arrow-heads and perfectly spherical “bolas.” The Pakeolithic, or Pleistocene, implements are all referred to a single epoch. The resemblance of these implements to those found in Europe, North Africa, and North America is very close, although, as might have been expected,. the closest similarity is found in the case of the North American types. In the Neolithic epoch, on the other hand, three periods are distinguishable, each indicating a distinct step in advance of its predecessor. Throughout the Neolithic epoch Patagonia presents characteristics in the matter of flint implements distinguishing it from the rest of Argentine territory. The similarity between the Patagonian neoliths and those of the southern and south-eastern United States is surprisingly close, but between the former and those of the western United States a less marked resemblance exists. Apparently some of these stone arrow-heads were used until a very recent date by certain of the Indian tribes.
Anales del Museo Nacional de Buenos Aires.
Ser. 3, vol. v. Pp. 574; 289 text-figures. (Buenos Aires, 1905.)
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L., R. Anales del Museo Nacional de Buenos Aires . Nature 73, 581 (1906). https://doi.org/10.1038/073581c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/073581c0