N.Z. man sees Peking man

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33370, 31 October 1973, Page 18

N.Z. man sees Peking man

(N.Z. Press Association) , AUCKLAND, October 30. A New Zealand academic claims to have become the first person other than its discoverers to see the famous 500,000-year-old Peking man. Dr R. G. Every, of Christchurch, saw not only the Peking man fossil but also the even older Lentien man, aged 600.000 years. A research fellow in zoology at the University of Canterbury, Dr Every was one of a group of 25 academics, medical doctors, and their wives who arrived back at Auckland Airport last night after a three-week tour of China. Sponsored by the New Zealand-China Society, it was

| the first group of New ZeaHand doctors and academics ito tour China. Members paid: I their own fares. I Dr Every said the Chinese: [first showed him the famous, i Choukoutien caves, where the j (Peking man was rediscov-l [ered in 1963. Peking man fos-i Isils had been discovered ear-’ ;lier, but had been lost. The Chinese showed him; (casts of early fossil dis-! (coveries, including that of Pe-| king man, and made the ex-i icuse-that they were shifting [ sites and did not have the [originals. “They were testing me out to see how much I knew and ’ito see if I was genuine,” Dr 51 Every said. “They wanted to [find out whether I could ex : [ plain the fossils to them.” :l Eventually, at the Institute Hof Vertebrate Palaeontology Hat the Chinese Academy of ! Sciences in Peking, the Chin•iese scientist discoverers reijvealed the original fossils.

I “First they brought out: bits and pieces of other fossils, and then, with huge! ismiles, showed me the more! ! precious pieces,” he said. Dr Every added: “I was, I the first to see the Peking !man other than its discover-) ers. Not even other Chinese) have seen it.” He also saw the fossil of: the largest primate known to) have existed, called Giganto)pithecus, discovered in iKwangshi province in 1957. Dr Every' said the Peking and Lentien men were of: tremendous significance i because they helped clarify ai point over which there had been much scientific conflict. Early man was identified as distinct from apes by his short canines, but scientists had never been able to explain how' the short canines came into being. “I have found primarily by studying man today that teeth grinding in man is a

j natural phenomenon,” he said. “Early man, as does )r..odern man, forcibly ground I his teeth at night as a 'response to tension.” j Dr Every said man became .separate from the apes 14 j million years ago, because unlike the ape he sharpened land shortened all his teeth, jnot just the long canines. | “It was a basic instinct ) which enabled them to have more efficient eating and biting to kill,” he said. ) The change to small canines also helped early man to communicate better I through the improved sounds he could make with his voice I and through facial expressions. :) Dr Every, who has visited i sites of other famous finds ;| throughout the world, said he l was able to show the Chinese the sharp-edged teeth, the : importance of which they had i never considered.