Abstract
I HAVE read in NATURE of August 5, just received, Mr. F. W. Fitzsimons's letter referring to the discovery of Palæolithic man in South Africa. I would not trouble you with these lines were it not that many of its statements are erroneous. Moreover, owing to my name being mentioned in connection with a detailed examination which is being carried out in this museum, it might be thought that I am in part responsible for the conclusions which Mr. Fitzsimons enumerates. As a matter of fact, I informed him, when first the skull was sent to us, and again some nine months ago, that the fragment was not referable to the Neanderthal type. There is, therefore, no more justification in the statement he makes that there is “a close resemblance in shape, thickness, and measurements” of the Boskop to the Neanderthal than in his generalisation on the origin of the Palæolithic implements in South Africa, or in the state of mineralisation of the relic—“The skull is as completely fossilised as the Karoo fossil reptiles,” which are Permian and Triassic.
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PERINGUEY, L. Palælithic Man in South Africa. Nature 96, 114 (1915). https://doi.org/10.1038/096114b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/096114b0
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