Hesperopithecus, the Anthropoid Primate of Western Nebraska

Abstract

EVERY discovery directly or indirectly relating to the pre-history of man attracts world-wide attention and is apt to be received either with too great optimism or with too great incredulity. One of my friends, Prof. G. Elliot Smith, has perhaps shown too great optimism in his most interesting newspaper and magazine articles on Hesperopithecus, while another of my friends, Dr. A. Smith Woodward, has shown too great incredulity in his article in Nature of June 10. It is in reply to both these extremes that I have especially prepared for Nature additional information regarding the fauna and habitat of this new Primate, and additional figures to show the comparison between the small, water-worn, type tooth of the genus (Fig.2, 1–4) and the teeth which mostnearly resemble it.