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THE TREND OF HUMAN EVOLUTION
Author(s) -
Weidenreich Franz
Publication year - 1947
Publication title -
evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.84
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1558-5646
pISSN - 0014-3820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1558-5646.1947.tb02720.x
Subject(s) - citation , natural history , biology , genealogy , library science , history , computer science , botany
feature, was contemporaneous with Siuanthrop us pekinensis and shared its habitat with him. Nevertheless, except for a relatively slight reduction in size and robustness, the macaque does not present any change in the basic character of its essential features over a period of about 500,000 years, while Sinanthropus, as an early hominid type, underwent great changes during the same period. So we have an almost complete standstill in one case and rapid development in the other. I t seems very likely that orangutan and Pithecanthropus contrast in the same way. Except for the size of the teeth, the fossil orangutan from South China and Java scarcely differs from the living orangutan while Pithecanthropus changed in almost every detail during the same period, retaining only his general human character. Another example which could be interpreted as a standstill in evolution is the case of Paidopithex rhenanus. Paulopithex rhenanus, represented by a well preserved femur, is a fossil primate from the Lower Pliocene of the valley of the Rhine. Its general form, proportions, and every detail are identical with those of the femur of recent Hylobates (gibbons) of South Asia and Indonesia, the only differences being the size of the Paidopithex femur which is much larger ACCELERATION AND DECELERATION IN