Giants of Old

Many anthropologists believe that Man developed from a small, feeble ancestor. Gradually he grew bigger until he reached his present peak. But last week Dr. Ralph von Koenigswald, Dutch paleontologist, pressed a new theory. He thinks that Man grew gigantic a million years ago, then shrank to his present size.

Dr. von Koenigswald found in Java before the war a great bank of soft, eroding stone peppered with ancient fossils. He organized a gang of natives to pick up bones after every rain. At last he got a hatful of humanlike fragments.

The oldest were the biggest. From the lowest level came massive teeth and jaw bones which must have belonged to monstrous manlike creatures eight to nine feet tall and weighing 600 to 700 pounds. They were four times as big as modern man.

According to a widely accepted theory, Man's arboreal ancestors swung from bough to bough until climatic changes shot the trees out from under them. But Dr. von Koenigswald says there were always plenty of trees in southeast Asia. His giants just got too heavy for Tarzan tactics. When snapping branches dumped them too often, they took to solid ground, armed themselves with stone axes. Then, not needing bulk for protection, they shrank to handier size.

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