Recent discoveries attributed to early man in America / Aleš Hrdlička.

  • Hrdlička, Aleš, 1869-1943.
Date:
1918
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Recent discoveries attributed to early man in America / Aleš Hrdlička. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    hones in the section lie then called Mr. Weills, and together they removed the bones. The parts of the skeleton obtained include (lie right and left femur, lacking the extremities; right patella; left tibia and fragments of the right; right fibula; right calcnneum; right and left astragalus; left navicular; ex¬ ternal cuneiform of the right foot; right metatarsals one to four; left metatar¬ sals three to five; a part of the shaft of the left humerus; right os magnum; three metacarpals; and three phalanges. All of these bones pertain appar¬ ently to the same specimen, representing a small individual. From the lower margin of the lesser tuberosity to the upper margin of the inner condylar notch, the femur measures 2!) cm., the corresponding measurement on the femur of a large modern adult being as much as 32 cm. The extremities of the larger limb bones of this skeleton are but poorly preserved, a condition common to many of the bones in this sand, although the bones found in muck in this bed are as a rule more nearly complete. The section of the bank at the place where these human bones were found is as follows: Feet. Inches. Sandy hard marl rock_ 1 3 Sand stained brown by organic matter- 3 9 Marine shell marl to water level in the canal- 5 9 The marl rock and the brown sand beneath represent stratum No. 2 of the general section (text figure 2), the alluvial bed, No. 3 of the section, being absent at this place. The human remains were imbedded’ in the brown sand about 3 feet from the base or 2 feet from the ground surface as it existed previous to the construction of the canal. That the sands in which the human remains are found represent a con¬ tinuation of the stratum holding the other vertebrate fossils there can be no question, as the section is continuous along the canal bank and the deposits identical in appearance. Eleplias columbi, Equus leidyi, and other extinct species are found at an equal or higher level in the beds on either side of the human remains. From the marl rock which lies at the top of the section the writer obtained, within G feet of the place where the human skeleton lay, a premolar tooth of a fox, representing not the common gray fox of that region, but either an extinct species or possibly the red fox, Vulpes perms jjl rani cits, which at present is not known in Florida. In immediate association with the human bones were the scapula and astragalus of a deer, which is also found elsewhere in the sand, being one of the common fossils of the bone bed. In addition a hyoid bone of the sloth, Megalonyx jcffersonii, and pieces of the teeth of the mastodon, Mammut americanum, have been collected from the canal bank at the place where the human bones were found. Second skeleton. fPp. 140-142.] Tn February, 191G, Mr. Ayers obtained a human right ulna which, although not found in place, was recognized as having been derived from the bank, since the degree of mineralization was similar to that of the asso¬ ciated vertebrate fossils. The skeleton from which this bone came, however, was not located at that time. Again, in April, 1916, Mr. Ayers found the distal end of a humerus, which, although not in place, had recently fallen from the bank. The discovery of this bone led to the location in the bank of ether bones belonging to the same skeleton to which belongs also the ulna found three months earlier. The place of these bones in the section may be seen from the photograph Tpl. 6, fig. 1], which shows the left ulna, femur, and radius as they lay in the bank. All of these bones were at the1 base of