THE DESCRIPTION OF A NEANDERTHALOID AUSTRA-

Description of a Neanderthaloid Ausstralian Skull
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
The outstanding features of the skull No. 792 are:
(i) The general massiveness of the skull including the great thickness of
the cranial vault.
(ii) The receding forehead.
(iii) The great absolute length of the cranium.
(iv) The massive undivided tori supraorbitales, and the marked projection
of the glabella in the region of which unusually large frontal air-sinuses
separate the two tables of bone.
(v) The pithecoid conformation of the occipital region and the presence
of a well-defined torus occipitalis.
The face is less primitive than the cranial vault exhibiting orthognathism
and a leptorrhine nasal region.
Special reference has been made to the Neanderthaloid features of the
specimen. The resemblances of the cranium to the Neanderthal specimen is
remarkable when the marked contrast of the general skeleton of the two types
is kept in mind. We must regard the cranial resemblances as an expression of
the principle that descendants of a common ancestor show a tendency to
develop independently similar features.
The Neanderthaloid features of No. 792 are as follows:
(1) The degree and projection of the glabella and tori supraorbitales, the
latter being undivided (Type III, Cunningham).
The index of post-orbital depression is 81'25 (Pithecanthropus, 82-08;
Spy II, 83.06) and the distance of the post-orbital depression from the glabella
is 44 mm. (Pithecanthropus, 35; Spy II, 39).
(2) The presence of the fossa supraglabellaris and sulci supraorbitales.
(3) The degree of forehead slope. (Bregma-glabella-inion angle 500
(Spy II, 470); Schwalbe forehead angle 700 (Spy II, 670). Index of
curve of frontal 13-04 (Neanderthal, 13-39; Spy I, 10-10; Spy II,
15.92).)
(4) The great length of the precerebral part of the roof of the orbit.
(No. 792, 25 mm.; Neanderthal, 20 mm.)
(5) The presence of a bregmatic eminence.
(6) The presence of the torus occipitalis transversus with tubercles
situated laterally.
(7) The low position of the endinion (20 mm. below inion).
(8) The contour of the lambdoid and temporal sutures.
(9) The 'rounded outline of the temporal and sphenoidal regions, as
depicted in horizontal and vertical sections.
(10) The coincidence of the inion and maximum occipital point, combined
with the great absolute length of the glabella-inion line (203 mm.).
(11) The fact that the skull is dolicho-platycephalic as shown by the low
cephalic index (65.02) and the equality of the cephalic and vertical
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