Science Rebuilds The Missing Link.

New York Times 100 years ago today, May 18, 1913:
Reconstructed Model of Ape-Woman's Skull Is Shown at South Kensington Museum.
HUGE TEETH, LITTLE BRAIN
Fragments of the Skull Found In a Sussex Pit May Now Be Viewed by Students.
By Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph to The New York Times.
    LONDON, May 17.— A scientifically reconstructed skull of the oldest woman in the world is now on exhibition at the Natural History Museum in South Kensington.
    It was the discovery of the fragmentary remains of the original skull that sent such a thrill of excitement throughout the scientific world last Autumn, when Charles Dawson unearthed it from a pit at Piltdown Common. Sussex, and a great company of distinguished professors gathered at the meeting of the Geological Society where the discovery was first made public.
    The skull is not an object of beauty, even as skulls may be regarded as varying in gracefulness, but in her defense it may be pleaded that the woman was semi-simian, combining in herself traits of the human being with characteristics of the ape.
    Scientists regard her as the one specimen extant of the "missing link." Her age eludes one even now. She may have lived 50,000 years ago, or 100,000 , or even 200,000, for geologists agree to differ upon so delicate a subject, but it is believed that she belongs to the Pliocene period. The discovery of her remains forms one of the most romantic incidents in the history of geological research, and, although a pilgrimage of scientists to England to inspect them is not predicted this year, no geologist from Europe or America who finds himself in London this Summer will be likely to miss the opportunity of having a call upon her at the museum. The actual remains are not exhibited to the general public; savants and students may examine them, however.
    These remains comprised no more than a portion of the left side of the skull and a piece of the lower jaw, but with these as a guide Frank Barlow has succeeded in reproducing what is regarded as a faithful and trustworthy model of the whole, by  careful observation and scientific deduction. The task of making the model occupied Mr. Barlow many weeks. By noting the formation of the left half of the skull, he explained, it was possible to build up the right side with a considerable degree of certainty. On the same plan the lower jaw could be completed with a sure touch, and the conformation of the whole skull could thus be satisfactorily established.
    The appearance of the facial bones and the upper law is largely conjecture, but the jaw bone is in every respect characteristic of that of the chimpanzee, and Mr. Barlow said that in constructing the model he followed the logical course, providing it with a dental equipment of the simian type. No modern human being possesses teeth of the size, and shape of those seen in the model, and, more than anything else, the powerful teeth of the heavy under jaw serve to emphasize the ape-like characteristics of this primitive being.
    A cast of the brain taken from the restored skull is also on view. While the brain cavity of the normal human being measures more than 90 cubic inches, this Pliocene skull has a capacity of no more than 64 3/4 cubic inches, showing that the brain development in modern woman is more than one-third greater than that of her semi-simian ancestor. From the greater development of brain at the back of the left lobe is judged that the individual was right handed, another item in the chain of evidence proving that the skull is of the human species.
    There can be little doubt that the Piltdown woman's remains are the earliest yet uncovered, older than the fragments found at Neanderthal, Prussia, in 1856, or even the jaw found at Heidelberg in 1907.
    Some scientists, Prof. Klaatsch among them, hold that this primitive type was driven back and extirpated by the higher race of man which existed contemporaneously with it on earth. There is, however, no evidence to support this view.