The Peking Skull*

Abstract

WITH characteristic promptitude, Prof. Davidson Black has now provided us with a full report upon the features of the Peking skull, giving a detailed description of its external form, illustrated by 16 photographic plates (each photograph provided with a transparent explanatory drawing) and 37 text-figures. The drawings represent exact orthogonal projections not only of the type skull but also of the second skull of Sinanthropus, the finding of which was discussed in NATURE of Aug. 9, 1930 (p. 210), and of a series of other fossil human skulls. The purpose of this comparison is to define the distinctive characters of Sinanthropus and to emphasise the contrasts in size and proportions that differentiate it from Pithecanthropus and the series of Neanderthal skulls. An elaborate series of measurements is provided together with a statistical analysis of the significance of the figures, in comparison with those of other fossil human types, as well as of representatives of modern races of men. Hence complete data are now available to enable the anthropologist to realise the distinctive features of the Peking skull and the reasons which induced Prof. Davidson Black to differentiate it from all other known human types and assign it a distinctive generic rank.