Abstract
SOME suggestive results, which may possibly turn out to have a bearing on the question of the existence of evolutionary tendencies in modern man, emerge from an examination by Dr. T. D. Stewart, of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., of skeletal material brought back by one of the Institutions recent expeditions to Alaska. The material consists of some two hundred Eskimo skeletons, which were obtained by excavation. Dr. Stewarts observations point to the possibility that they may prove an exception to the generally accepted view that the human body has attained a high degree of specialisation, which shows little tendency to vary. Approximately 12 per cent of these Eskimo skeletons have 25, instead of the normal 24, presacral vertebræ. The anomaly is present in nearly sixteen per cent of the males, but in only less than one per cent of the females, and it is considerably more frequent in skeletons secured north of the Yukon. In a preliminary report on these results, which has been issued by the Smithsonian Institution, it is pointed out that this frequency is nearly twice as much as the maximum previously recorded among the northern Eskimo. Among Europeans it runs to only 3-–6 per cen; but one study notes 7 per cent among the Japanese. In the material examined by Dr. Stewart, the tendency seems to be towards a lengthening of the spinal column from the sacrum. There is no variation in the cervical vertebræ to show a tendency towards the lengthening of the neck. The predominance of the anomaly among males is held to give some indication of a hereditary character. Dr. Stewarts material will appear in full in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
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Anomalous Eskimo Vertebræ. Nature 131, 125–126 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/131125d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/131125d0