Abstract
FURTHER study of the large human-like third upper molar of which the discovery at Sterkfontein was recorded recently by J. C. Middleton Shaw in the columns of NATURE (143, 117; 1939) and a comparison with remains of the fossil Plesianthropus and Paranthropus of Broom have led to some interesting conclusions as to the possible significance of this new Sterkfontein primate. These further considerations have been discussed by Dr. Shaw in a communication to the Annals of the Transvaal Museum (20, 2; 1940). There would appear to be no doubt that the new molar belongs to neither Plesianthropus nor Paranthropus; and it differs from the third molars in all the material from fossil apes which has been described by W. K. Gregory. If, therefore, it belonged to a fossil ape, it must be concluded that that ape differed, at least so far as the upper third molar is concerned, from any ape hitherto described.
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New Fossil Primate from Sterkfontein, South Africa. Nature 146, 489 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1038/146489a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/146489a0