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Show 524 'I'll E ~10NOGJ~NIS1'S AND a fragment of the anterior face of this jaw in which the in ·is01·s wcrc plant d. There wa found at the same time a humerus piphysiz <.!. at its two cxt.rcmitics." lie remarks on the teeth also,-" This would bo a process of dentition intermediate between that of man and of living monkeys, except the Gibbon Siamang, in which I have observed the same circumstaneoFJ of dentition as in our fossil monl- y. (This gives me an opp01-tnnity to remember that tho G-ibbons, and in particular the Gibbon Siamang, placed generally by zoologists in the last rank of the tribe of Simians, or Superior Monlceys, furnish notwithstanding, through their Flk 1 ton, a totality of charactcristies approaching v ry much more considerably the human type than one can find in tho Orang, Ol' even in tlt Chimpanzee.)" "In resume, the new fossil monkey comes evidently to place itself, with some superior cbat·actcrs at certain points of view, in the group of Lltc Simians, which already comprises tho Oltimpanzee, tho 01·an,c;, tho G01·illa, tho Gibbons, and tho little fossil Monlcey of Suu an (Pl'iopitltecus antiquus, Gcrv.). It di:ffc1'S from all thoRo monkeys tbrou()'h some dental details; and, more ma11ifcstly still, by tho very-apparent shortoni ng of the face. The r duced size of the incisors bci ng alii J. with great dcvclopm nt of tho molars indicates a r gimon essentially frugivorous. Th little that is knovvn, furthermore, of the bony stmcturc of tho limus, denotes more of agility thau muscular cnct·gy. One would be, therefore, thns induced to suppose that this Monkey, of very largo size, lived habitually upon tree , as do tho Gibbons of the present cpo<:h. In consequence I will propose to d signaie it by the gene1·ic name of JJryopitltecus (ft·om d1·us, tree, oak [found likewise amongst tho lignites of tho same Pyronman region], and pitltekos, monkey). In dedi 'atiJtg it as species to the onlightcncu naturalist to whom palroontology is indebted for this important acquisition, it would be the JJryopithecus Fontani. " ix fossil monkeys, then, arc henceforward to be counted in Europe, viz: two in Eno-land, tho Macacus eocenus, Owen, and the Macacu. s pliocenus, id. ;. three in France, the Pliopithecus antiquus, the JJrytlpztltecus Fontam, and the Semnop-ithecus monspessulanus, which is probably the same as tho Pitltecus maritim1~s of M. de Christol. Lastly, the monkey of Pilcermi, in Greece, named by M.A. Wrwncr Mezopitltecus pentelicus. M. Gaudry and I propose, in our Mcmoit· on the fossil bones of Pilcermi, which will bo soon present d to the Academy, to attach ibis monkey to the group of Semnopitlteci, under the name of Semnopitltecus pentelicus." Bones of the Macrotlterium, Rhinoceros, JJim·ocerus elegans, &c., wor~ also co~lcctcd at the same spot, by M. Fontan, and in the same medlUm tertiary (m'ioccne) deposits. TilE POLYGF.NISTS. 52;) Thus, in one short month since this essay was commenced, advancing science has added another grand link to the chain of organic remains which now connc ts tho faunro of the past old world with those of tho present. Already, from the prcviou. ly known fossil Gibbon, not a .far remove from human likeness, we have monnt d np, in tho graduat d scale of Ol'O'anization, to tho level of tho hicrltcst living anthropomorpltous apes ( Oran,q-utan,370 Oltimpanzee, and Go- 1"illa), through this precious discovery of 1J1·yopitltecus Fontani. It will opportun ly exemplify how pr pared rcally-scicnLific men aro now, all over tho world, for these revelations from "the Boolc of Nature-which cannot lie," to present here an extract from the addrc s of my friend Puol!'. RIDDELL, delivered at New Orleans, on the 25th Feb., 18"6-somc six months before M. LAR'rET announced at Paris this astounding "confirmation." "I must allude in very general terms to the recent rro()'rcss of Geology. 'l'ho pltilosopbical views of Lyell, respecting tho dyna.mi<: al causes that have produced tl1c geological aspect of our planet during the lapse of paFlt ages, arc gaining more and more fully the assent of tho cultivators of this science. Instead of evoking, as a probable cause, tho agency of imaginary cataclysms, or general and E~udden convul. ions of nature, to explain the origin of mouutain upheavals, torr no depressions, tho petrifaction of organic remains, the extinction of successive races of animals and plants, tho induration, crystallization, and disintegration of rock strata, Mr. Lyell alleges that we have reason to suppose all these, aud more, have resulted ii·om tho long-continued agency of such dynamic causes as continuo to manifest their action at the present time. In some instances, tho cfl:cctFJ produced are hardly appreciable during tho brief period of human lifo; bHt we should remember that the stately hundred years, which is rarely approached, anu still more rarely oxcccdcd hy man, when used as a measure for tho probable duration of those vast periods of time oc upiod in the production and modification of the numerous successive geological strata, with their mineral contents and organic remains, becomes, to Olll' limited comprehension, a mere infinitesimal; a quantity too small to have assigned to it any soHsiblc val uo in comparison. "The recent period, so called, now in progress, contains the relics of animals and plants, of species essentially identical with those now flourishing. It has been estimated, .fi·om data carefully obtained and 1no In Malay, "Orang" moans only man, and is pro fixed to proper names of all nations; "Utnn," siguifying 'wild, designates tho "Ornng-utan" as tho wild ma11, which CnAwFunn ( Afalay Grammar and Dictionary, TJ, p. 123) spells" Omng-utang,"-its trao Mnlnynn nome being "1\liyus." Still (p. 108), "Ulan" is givon u~ lho syuonyrn for wild, wildernea8. |