« The Fox in Charge of the Henhouse
Main
The Third World in America »
September 6, 2005
New Clues in Search for Original Peking Man Fossils?
One of the great mysteries in paleoanthropology involves the whereabouts of the fossil remains discovered in China before World War II and are popularly called Peking Man. Peking Man is Homo erectus for those that are keeping score. The mystery involves five or so skull fragments that disappeared as the Japanese entered Beijing (Peking) at the beginning of World War II.
As Jim Foley at Fossil Hominids in the TalkOrigins archive tells it,
The original fossils disappeared in 1941 while being shipped to the United States for safety during World War II, but excellent casts and descriptions remain. Since the war, other erectus fossils have been found at this site and others in China.
Now the Independent Online reports the following:
Beijing - Chinese researchers are hopeful of finding the remains of the world's most famous cave dweller, the 500 000-year-old Peking Man, more than 60 years after they disappeared, state media said on Tuesday.Several interesting clues have come to light in recent months, according to members of a recently established committee charged with looking for the Peking Man's bones and other missing relics, the China Daily reported.
[snip]
Just in the last two months, the committee has received 63 tip-offs on the whereabouts of the elusive relics, said Liu Yajun, deputy head of the commission.
However, it may be a while before the Peking Man bones see the light of day, as one of the clues has them buried under a residential building in Beijing.
The remainder of the article describes the history and impact of these missing fossils. It's enough to make one hope, but not enough to hang your hat on. If found, these original fossils would contribute little to the paleoanthropological landscape. That they once existed has never been in dispute and their casts and follow-on finds make them of little scientific importance. Not to say that they are of no importance. While good casts can be helpful, sometimes the original fossils show subtlies of structure that the casts may not. One thinks of small differences in muscle attachment points as an example. On the other hand, due to conditions in the environment where they have remained for these many years, their scientific usefulness may have deteriorated as they may have deteriorated.
Posted by Duane Smith at September 6, 2005 5:55 PM | Read more on Paleoanthropology |
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.telecomtally.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1344
Comments
Sorry, comments are closed for this post.
Send me an email if it is important.