228
f
cess known as "local adaptive radia­
tion," or the exploitation by differ­
ent members of a group of the
possibilities offered by difIerent
elements of their common environ­
ment and common structure. The
special "exploitation" in this instance
consisted in the development of the
grasping powers of the hand rather
than those of the foot, while among
the ancestors of the great apes the
opposite was occurring. Coincident­
ly with the development of the hand
terrestrial habits were gradually
Man's Pedigree
Grafton Elliot-Smith
1924
Before we can attempt to discuss
the factors that were responsible for
the emergence of the distinctive
characters of 1Vfan, it is essential that
we should make some attempt to
reconstruct his pedigree, for it is
only when the relationships one to
the other of the different races of
men and the extinct members of the
Human Family are defined that one
can begin to consider what were the
sequence of changes and what the
essential conditions of progress
within the Family. Moreover, with­
"Man's Pedigree." From The Evolution of Man by G. Elliott-Smith, published
Fig, L A tentative scheme of the relationships of the different genera, species,
by Oxford University Press. London, 1924. Pp. 1-15.
'0 ~..
"", Th", / 1890 1925 .
Australian
Negro Mongol Mediterranean Nordic Alpine
adopted, through stages such as m a y ' ! race race race race race race
be seen among the living Old World i
primates. The hind foot was thus
brought to the ground without the
encumbrance of a hallux specialized
for grasping, while the hand was Homo rhoJesiensis
n
so modified that its use as a fore
foot was made difficult. This Com­
bination of circumstances supplied
the structural and functional ele­
ments needed for initiating the
series of changes which finally pro­
duced the essential characters of the
human form.
Homo sapiells
out some definite scheme of the
position in time and the relationship
one to the other of the members Genus Homo
of the Order Primates, to which
Man belongs, it is impossible to form Eoalllhroplls
any idea as to the nature of the
factors that determined the emer­ PLEISTOCENE Pithe( '(III Iii ropus
gence of the qualities of mind and
body that are distinctive of the PLIOCENE
Human Family.
I have therefore attempted to
construct two diagrams to give graph­
ic expression to the present state
of our knowledge regarding these
and races of the Human Family.
229

 'l"''''-Eili"I,Smilh / M,n', I',d'.'" 231

Galago Tarsius Chimpanzee Gibbon
questions of pedigree. In the first Europe in the so-called Upper Palaeo­
Lemur!Cebus I
HOMO Gorilla I Orang I
Macacus
figure the relationships of the Hu:n an lithic Age. It is probable that they

RECENT 200 ft. I:

I
i
:

+
·
·

Family itself have been tentatIvely should be placed in the scheme

partly on the stem common to the
···

plotted out. All of the existing mem­

I +
bers of the Human Family belong to Nordic and Mediterranean people,
HOMINIDAE
PLEISTOCENE 200 ft.1 I + the species Homo sapiens. The most and partly lower down at the place
I +
Pithecanthropus

·····
primitive race now living is undoubt­ where the Negro branched off from
.
PLIOCENE 2(i0 ft. I '.
I
II
+
+ I I I

Hesperopithecus
edly the Australian, which repre­ the main stem. Before Homo sapiens
C~jme into existence the ancestors of
I +
· sents the survival with comparatively

····
I +
I + slight modifications of perhaps the Neanderthal Man became divergent­
I + primitive type of the species. Next ly specialized: in the diagram the
HUMAN FAMILY
+ ··· in order comes the Negro Race, attempt has been made roughly to

·····
+ which is much later and, in some locate in time the epoch to which
+ PliopitheclIs respects, more highly specialized, the actual remains of Neanderthal

···

differing profoundly in many respects NIan belong, and to contrast it with

MIOCENE J .000 ft.
from the Australian, but sharing
with it the black pigmentation of
the skin, which is really an early
characteristic of the Human Family
that primitive Man shares with the
Gorilla and the Chimpanzee. After
the Negro separated from the main
stem of the Family, the amount of
OLIGOCENE
pigment in the skin underwent a
sudden and very marked reduction;
and the next group that became
Lemurinae
segregated and underwent its own
distinctive specialization was the
Mongol Race. After the separation
EOCENE of the Mongol there was a further
XOO ft. reduction of pigment in the skin;
and from this white division of
mankind the Alpine Race first be­
came split off the main stem, which
ultimatel y became separa ted in to the
Mediterranean and the Nordic
Races, in the latter of which the
--­ reduction of pigment was carried a
CRETACEOUS INSECTIVORA stage further to produce the blond­
(menotyphla ) est of all human beings.
There arc certain individuals that
cannot at present satisfactorily be
placed in this scheme. Such. for
Fig. 2. A tentative schcmc of the relationships of tlte Order Primatcs. example, as the men who lived in
the time at which this species be­
came separated from the ancestors
of Homo sapiens.
This necessarily involves a cer­
tain amount of conjecture, because
it places Neanderthal Man, or rath­
er those members of the species
whose bones have been found in
Europe, about midway up the stem
of HOII/O sapiens, whereas no actual
remains of the species sa pie IS have
been found except at a period sub­
sequent to the disappearance of
l\eanderthal Man in Europe. The
fact that these earliest known mem­
bers of our species belong definitely
to a higher type than the Australian
and the Negro points clearly to the
conclusion that these representa­
tives belong to a comparatively late
phase in the history of the species,
and that they were immigrants into
Europe when they displaced repre­
sentatives of the Neanderthal spe­
oes.
The skull found in Rhodesia ill
1921 represents a species of the
genus HOII/o which is definitely more
primitive than that of Neanderthal

230
I

232
"tvfan, although the actual bones
which were found in the Broken Hill
"tvfine may be actually very much
more recent in time than the bones
of the Neanderthal species, which
have been recovered in Europe. In
the diagram the attempt has been
made to represent these facts graph­
ically, and to show how the ances­
tors of Rhodesian :Man may have
sprung from the main stem at a
much earlier period than Neander­
thal Man, but survived till a more
recent period than the latter. This
would not be surprising when one
considers that in Africa there have
been preserved until the present
time representatives of much more
ancient genera of mammals whose
European representatives became
extinct at a vastly more ancient time
than that assigned in the diagram
to the origin of Rhodesian Man.
In the diagram I have assigned
the origin of Rhodesian Man to a
place near to Heidelberg Man: but
at present it is impossible to define
the issue more closely, because the
only fragment of Heidelberg Man
that we possess consists of a lower
jaw, whereas the lower jaw is mis­
sing in the case of Rhodesian Man,
of whom we possess the skull and
some of the limb bones. But the jaw
from Heidelberg fits the Rhodesian
skull so closely that I have ventured
to put the origins of the two species
in close apposition, and as we know
the date of Heidelberg .Man it sug­
gests the time at which the Rho­
desian species separated from the
main stem of mankind. Heidelberg
"tvfan occupies a position at the base
of the genus Homo. In fact, future
Part Three / 1890 to 1925 Elliot-Smzt. h / '''1
- , I. , - - ' P edigree
lY an s 233
discovery may possibly compel us to palaeontologists as a representative of balance of probability as favouring
exclude the Heidelberg remains from a hitherto unknown Primate, but so its identification as a primitive mem­
that genus, as Bonarelli suggested far as its structure is concerned the ber of the Human Family rather
some years ago: but at present the tooth presents a closer approxima­ than a new genus of Anthropoid
available evidence favours the in­ tion to that of Pithecanthropus than Apes.
clusion of these remains definitely to the Anthropoid; and 1 regard the The discovery of a single tooth
within the genus Homo, and compels
us to locate it right at the base of
Type HC.'/'/'ro/,il hC('lIs
the stem. Apart from the genus r\
/ ~ ,..... \ (.... I - \ ( .....
I
H 0/110 two other genera of the Hu­ /1 , I \ I \ I \ I '\
I
(/ I
man Family are known from the / I,
LD8
base of the Pleistocene. These are I I
a
" I
the Piltdown skull representing the
genus t;oanthropus, which is very ~:'
closely related to the main stream
which eventually emerged as the
genus IIomo, and the earlier and Posterior Outer Anterior Inner
more primitive, but also more highly
specialized, Ape-"tvlan of Java, Pithe­
canthropus, the date of which was
formerly assigned to the Upper
Homo sopiells
Pliocene, but is now generally be­
lieved to belong to the very com­
mencement of the Pleistocene. So
that, although we have no fossil
bones generally admitted to be b
human that can be referred to a
period earlier than the Pleistocene,
the marked contrast between Pithe­
canthropus and Eoanthropus, a
separation which is not only struc­
tural, but geographical, makes it
quite certain that Man must have
existed in the Pliocene, and possibly Pithecollthropus /'reetllS
earlier still.
The consideration of this ques­
tion brings us to the discussion of
the remarkable tooth found in
Nebraska in 1922, which is referred
to the Lower Pliocene Period. This
tooth, for the reception of which
Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn
has created a new genus, Hespe ro ­ Fig. 3. The Nebraska Tooth compared with those of Homo sapiens and
pithecus, is regarded by the American Pithecanthropus. (After Gregory.)
J

234
may seem rather a frail and hazard­
ous basis upon which to build such
tremendous ~md unexpected conclu­
sions; and many, if not most, scien­
tists have grave doubts as to the
justification for such an interpreta­
tion. But the specimen was dis­
covered by a geologist of wide
experience, and its horizon has been
satisfactorily established. ::\{oreover,
the determination of its affinities
and its identification as one of the
higher Primates closely akin to the
Ape-::\:lan of Java, Pithecanthropus,
has been made by the most com­
petent authorities on the specific
characters of fossilized mammalian
teeth, Professor Osborn and Drs.
::\latthew and Gregory, who not only
ha\"C had a wider experience of such
material than any other palaeon­
tologists, but also arc men of exact
knowledge and sound judgement.
[ think the balance of probability is
in favour of the \·iew that the tooth
found in the Pliocene beds of
Nebraska is really that of a primi­
tive member of the Human Family.
llesperojJithecZls is most nearly akin
to I :tJzecanthrojJ1l.I: and the Llct
that the latter was found in what,
at the end of the Pliocene Period,
W:lS the south-eastern corner of Asia,
and the fOl1ner in North America,
which was connected with Eastern
Asia by a land bridge enjoying a
genial climat(·, minimizes the dif­
ficulty of explaining an identifica­
tion that at first sight seelllS to be
wholly incredible. For till' Ameri­
can palaeontologists have demon­
strated that, at the time when till'
original owner of the Nebraska tooth
¥"
Part Three / 1890 to 1925
was living, certain Antelopes and
Rhinoceroses of Asiatic affinities
made their way into America, and
for this purpose a land bridge and
a wa rm clima te were essential.
For many years an experienced
geologist, Alr. Harold J. Cook, has
been collecting the remains of the
extinct fauna that lived in \Vestern
~ ebraska in Pliocene times; and
more than fifteen years ago he col­
laborated with Dr. W. D. ~fatthew,
the distinguished palaeontologist of
the American ::\:luseum, and com­
piled a remarkable inwntory of the
wonderful collection of mammalian
remaillS found by them and others
in a Pliocene deposit, which they
then distinguished as the Snake
Creek beds. Since then Mr. Cook
has continued the work of collecting,
and has acquired a thorough knowl­
edge of the stratigraphy and an in­
sight into the circumstances under
which fossils are discovered. Hence
he is not likely to have been deceived
as to the horizon in which a partic­
ular fragment was found. \Vhen,
on February 25, 1922, he wrote to
Professor Osborn, President of the
American :t-.luseum in New York, to
say that he had obtained from the
Upper, or Hipparion phase, of the
Snake' Creek beds 'a molar tooth
that very dosely approaches the
human type', the accuracy and relia­
bility of .Mr. Cook's identification of
its geological age and provenance
were not questioned. For he ex­
plaim'd that 'it was found associated
with the other typical fossils of the
Snake Creek and is mineralized in
the sallle fa~hion as they are'. His
Elliot-Smith / Man's Pedigree
daim that 'whatever it is, it is cer­
tainly a contemporary fossil of the
Upper Snake Creek horizon, and
agrees far more closely with the
anthropoid-human molar than that
of any other mammal known', has
been fully confirmed by the investi­
gations of Professor Osborn and
Drs. Matthew and Gregory, who
have an unrivalled experience of the
scientific study of mammalian fos­
silized teeth.
Dr. Gregory arrived at the Im­
portant conclusion that on the
whole we think its nearest resem­
blances are with Pithecanthropus,
and with men rather than with apes'.
This conclusion was based upon the
study of the features of the tooth;
and the claim that it was human
was further corroborated by the
degree and kind of 'wear', which
was unlike that found in any ape,
but of the same nature as occurs
in the different genera of the Human
Family, and especially Pithecanthro­
pus.
Elsewhere in this book, I shall
have occasion to criticize Dr. Pil­
grim's opinion that the form of the
teeth of a long extinct Miocene Ape
(Sivapithecus) found in India is
adequate evidence for its inclusion
in the Human Family. The ancestors
of the Hominidae no doubt exhib­
ited such human traits of teeth
and body in the Miocene probably
long before they acquired those dis­
tinctive characters of brain and mind
that alone entitle their descendants
to human rank. Hence, even if the
resemblances of the teeth of Siva­
pithecus to those of Man were closer
235
than they are, this would not justify
the inclusion of the former in the
Human Family. It would merely
suggest its kinship to the ancestors
of the Family.
The case of Hesperopithecus is
somewhat different. It is much more
recent, Pliocene instead of Miocene;
and therefore much more definitely
within the range of Man's possible
existence. The tooth presents much
closer affinities with those of the
most primitive members of the
Human Family. But the most im­
portant consideration of all, when
the extreme susceptibility of the
Anthropoid Apes to a cold climate
and their dependence upon forest
conditions is considered,! is that a
primitive human being is much more
likely than an ape to have crossed
to America by the northern Pacific
bridge.
The full significance and charac­
ter of this astounding discovery will
become more intelligible if we try
to put the newly discovered creature
into its place in the Human Family,
as I have attempted to do in Figure
2.
To the two extinct genera, Pithe­
canthropus and Eoanthropus, it is
now proposed to add a third, H es­
peropithecus, the Ape-Man of the
\Vestern \Vorld. This long-lost cousin
is the most surprising member of the
Family. For, if the suggestion of his
right to human rank should be justi­
fied, not only is he the only human
being so far discovered who lived in
I Henry Fairfield Osborn, Nature,
August 26, 1922, p. 281.
J
236
the remotely distant time of the
Pliocene Period, but he or his for­
:erthal Man, and in the Australian
bears had already wandered so far
from the original horne of the Family
(in Asia or Africa) as North Amer­
Ica.
In the second diagram, which is
an attempt to represent the position
of the Human Family in the Order
Primates, this tentatiYe suggestion
with reference to HesperopitheC1ls
has been graphically expressed. It
must, of course, be understood that
with the scanty eyidence at our dis­
posal the idea expressed in this dia­
gram is little more than conjecture.
But in helping us to understand the
nature of the problem at issue it is
much more useful to make a con­
crete proposal that can be criticized
and attacked, than merely to play
for safety and repress the whole
issue as something dangerous that
ought to be ayoided.
The first diagram, representing
the hypothetical family tree of the
Human Familv, is so arranged as to
represent the nwmbers that ha\'e
become specialized as branching
away from the main stream, which
leads to the highest type, and to
giYe graphic expression to the con­
ception that the attainment of the
supreme position is not inconsistent
with the retention of primitiYe
characters. Those types which haye
diYerged from the main current
have all of them become more or
less specialized in structure and lost
one or other of their primitive char­
arters. For example, the Negro has
lost the primitive characters of the
hair which the Nordic Race has
preserved.
Part Three / 1890 to 1925
I should make some explanation
of my reasons for putting the Nordic
Race at the apex of the main stem.
In doing so I am not subscribing
to those extravagant claims, so pop­
ular at the present moment, in
virtue of which blondness is regarded
as a character which marks this race
as supermen. All that is intended
in this scheme is to suggest that
those bleaching tendencies, of which
sC'yeral distinct phasC's are found
within the Human Family, are car­
ried furtlwst in the 1"\ ordic Race,
which also presents a number of
primitiYe traits that other of the
hum:lI1 races have lost. On the other
hand, the .vfeditC'rranean Race has
preserved a number of other prim­
itin~ characteristics, and especially
primitive features of brain, which
differentiate it from the Nordic
Race. But I have separated it from
the main stem mainly on the ground
of pigmC'ntation.
Another point I han' endeavoured
to express by putting upon the right­
hand sidC' those branches of the
Family in which there is a great
dl'\Tlopment of the eyebrow ridges
or, at any rate, a definite tendency
in that direction: whereas I have
placed upon the left-hand side of
the main stem those races which are
distinguished either by an absence
or a poor de\Tlopment of the eye­
brow ridges. This emphasizes the
fact that the de\Tlopment of the
eyebrow ridge is not of much im­
pOl'tance as an index of race. It is
neitlwr an exclusively primitiYe char­
actC'r 1101' ;, distinction of a higher
race. It is found develol)('d in Pithe­
canthropus, Rhodesian i\fan, Nean­
~liot-Smith / Man's Pedigree
f'
and Alpine Races, whereas a defect­
ive deYclopment of the ridge is
characteristic of Eoanthroplls, the
Negro, the .vfongol, and the
.tvfcditerranean Races, while the
Nordic Race occupies a position be­
tween the two extremes,
The second diagram indicates
the position of the Human Family
in the Primate phylum, but is also
intended to represent graphically the
position and relations of the whole
Order of Primates, Long before the
beginning of the Tertiary Period a
group of Insectiyora had become
separated from other mammals,
from which they arc distinguished by
the preseryation of features of an
extremely primitin~ character \'ery
closely akin to those of the lowlier
Marsupials of Australia and Amer­
ica. These creatures, represented to­
day by the Jumping Shrews of Africa
and the Tree Shrews of the ,Malay
Archipelago, arC' known as the J\len­
otyphla, ;md they arc dosely akin
to the fossil group of Creodonta, from
which the CarniYora were deri\Td.
On the other side they are closely
related to the primitiYe Hying mam­
mal known as Ga[eojJitheclis and the
Chiroptera, consisting of the Bats
and the Flying Foxes.
The adoption by some of these
Shrews of the habit of liYing in trees
brought about profound changes in
the relatiYe proportions of the brain.
The sense of vision became enhanced
in importance, and the sense of
smell correspondingly reduced: but
in addition the sensC's of touch
and hearing, and t!l(' power of
agility of movement, were consid­
237
erably enhanced. In one of these
groups the importance of Yision
became still further increased, and
the result of this was to bring into
existence the Order Primates. This
happened in the Upper Cretaceous,
at the phase represented in the dia­
gram by the Prosimiae primitivae.
Bdore the beginning of the Ter­
tiary Period these primiti\'e Lem­
uroids had split into two branches,
the L('muroidea and the Tarsioidea,
the fundamental distinction between
the two being a furt!J('r enhancement
of the importancC' of vision, which,
in the Tarsioidea, became the domi­
nant s('ns(', definitely usurping the
position occupi('d by smdl as the
chief guide to the animal, \\'hich is
found not only in the primitive
mammals, but is still retained ('yen
in the Lemurs_ Of the Tarsioidea
one member has surviv('d to the
present day with comparatively
slight change from the very begin­
ning of the Eocene Period as the
Spectral Tarsier which is still found
in BornC'O, .Java, and the Philippines.
Before the close of the Eocene
Period one of the Tarsioidea ac­
quired th(' ]lO\H'r of stereoscopic
vision and b('came transformed into a
primitive monkey \vith a yery COII­
sid('rable increase in the size of the
brain and all cnormous enhance­
ment of the ]lOW('f of skillC'd move­
mCllt and of intelligence. At this
stage in the evolution of the Pri­
ma t('s. which occurred somewhere in
th(' neighbourhood of C('lItral Amer­
ica. representati\-es of all thr('('
branches. Lemurs, Tarsioids, and
~ fonkC'ys, wand('f('d across from the
)iew World to the Old, across
 6.. 239
;::l """"""--Elli"'-Smi<h / M.n'" P'digM
c'"
-E bridges which stretched from North attainment of the high powers of
~ America to Africa and Europe, and Zldaptation which represent one of
;::
..s.~ also from North America to Eastern the most distinctive characteristics
Asia. of thf' Human Family.
-5 In the map some idea of the exten­
.~ The J\fonkeys which wandered
V acrOSS the Atlantic seem to have sin' wanderings of the Prima tes is sug­
U
c: undergone a profound change during gestf'd. Before the beginning of the
"0" Tertiary Pniod members of tht'
::; their journey, for, at the beginning
u
u of the Oligocene, we find in the Lemuroidea and Tarsioidea were
.S" Egyptian FayuIIJ representativf's of living in North America. In the
c: two new types of monkeys, the Eocene Period they wandered across
~
o tailed Catarrhines of the Old World. the land bridgf' to south-western
,.c
'" and the Anthropoid Apes, rf'pre­ Europe and Africa, but not bcforf'
1::c; sented by a diminutive creature some of the btter group had given
'" known as Propliopithecus. These birth to Pbtyrrhine monkeys, which
J~'
V
bJ)
:s Anthropoids wandered far and wide found an asylulll in South America,
"2)0 -, '-<
..0
in Africa, Europe, and Asia, in­ wherf' they havf' persistf'd until the
"0
c: creasing in size as their power of present day. Of the three groups
IJ> ..os
that wandued across the Atlantic
~
adaptation increased, zlI1d in the
c'-' middle of the Miocene PE'fiod in bridge to tllf' Old World-Lemurs,
u
'-'
o Northern India a great number of Tarsioids, and Monkeys-the latter
~
u new varieties had come into existence, undf'rwf'nt thf' most profound
~ inrluding the ancestors not only of change, and became split up into
ui
'-' the Giant Apes, but also of the t\\"O divisions- - the tailed Ca tarrhines
~
I
I Human Family. and the tailif'ss Anthropoid Apes, the
I .<:
p.., The object of this diagram, like diminutive represf'ntatives of which
"­ 1! the previous one, is to indicate the ha\"C bef'n [('covered from the Lowf'r
,
\
fact that all of these Lemurs, lvIon­ Oligocene beds of the Egyptian
I
00 Fayunl.
"'~•
bJ)
keys, and Apes, which have becoJJle
c:~ specialized in one way or another. Somf' of the migrations indicated
.~ 0­

U c: should be regarded as hZlving depart­ OJI the map occurred after the
"0 0
'"()
~
v:
V C ~
, c; " ed from the main stream of devel­ Eocene Period when new land con­
"
E 0..
<J:: ~$
\
,, .~ -0 '-' . opment tbat leads straight up to nexions Wf're established. The wan­
:: ~ if] (/;. ·0 -5r.n ;vIan, and by doing so lost sOlllf'thing derings of Monkeys into South
" ~2~~\~ ~~
~ ::l ._ ...:.:: ~ of the primitive structure and plas­ All1Clica and from Africa to India
"­ ~ E C § .­ ~o
"" , ij~~~ .3
ticity that \yere necessary for the fall into this catf'gOly.

,\ I ·· ~
'-<
~

•
\
I o ......
~

···
~
v V

(\0
~
I 0..2
I "p..,
I ~ >­
I
· .
• ..0
"';'''0
'-'
b/l ._
~"i5.,

238