MILLION-YEAR-OLD SKULL

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 80, 28 December 1929, Page 27

MILLION-YEAR-OLD SKULL

APPROACH TO MISSING LINK

For the past year or two a group of internationally known scientists has been quietly at work upon some fossilised fragments of human remains found in an old limestone bed within a few miles of Peking. They have now reached the conclusion, after a thorough study of the material, that these remains represent the nearest approach to the so-called “missing link” , between man and ape so far revealed to science. The discovery is regarded as overshadowing in importance even such notable finds as the “Piltdown Man” unearthed in England in 1912, and the “Java Ape Man” found by the Dutch army surgeon Dubois in 1891. All three are believed to belong to approximately the same geological age, but the Sinanthropus Pekinensis, or “Peking Man,” as this new genus has been called, is held to be much more human than either of the others. It appears to stand definitely in the main line of man’s development. The finding of two evidently human teeth furnished the first clue, writes the Peking correspondent of the Manchester “Guardian Weekly.” were brought to light as the result of investigations made in the first instance by Dr. J. G. Andersson, Swedish adviser to the Chinese Geological Survey, in 1926, at a place called Choukoutein, among the hills south-west of Peking, where the fissures of a cavernous limestone bed had been filled w'th the bones of prehistoric animals which either had tumbled in from above or had been swept in by streams. The bones had been cemented together into a solid mass by lime, and Dr. Andersson, recognising that they would yield much valuable information regarding the earlier fauna and climatic conditions of the region, arranged to have them excavated and studied. This woik was entrusted to Dr. O. Mansky a German palaeontologist, who took the material with him to Upsala, in Sweden since facilities for a proper study Ind comparison were lacking here m P During the process of excavation Dr. Andersson noted the presence of numerous quartz chips, apparently foreign to the region, and he suggested that, in spite.of their crudity, these might lepresent stone Implements of very primitive man, and that these represented creatures finding the remains of such a man in these deposits. His prediction was verified strikingly during the study of the material at Upsala. Two molar teeth of human type, one of an adult and the other of a child, were discovered by Dr. Zdansky embedded in the bone deposit, and it was soon established beyond doubt that these represented creatures contemporaneous with the “Piltdown Man” of Great Britain and the Pithecanthropus Erectus or ‘ Ape Man” found in Central Java. In view of .this Important discovery a further investigation of the Choukoutein site was decided upon by the Chinese Geological Survey working in close co-operation with the Rockefeller Foundation, and the work was put m

charge of Dr. C. Li, of the survey staff, and Dr. Birger Bohlin, a Swedish palaeotologist. To Dr. Davidson Black, a brilliant young Canadian scientist, was entrusted the stutdy of any further human material that might be found. Shortly before the close of the first season’s field work the second remarkable discovery was made. This was a perfect molar tooth of a child about nine years old, which was taken by Dr. Bohlin directly out of the rock material in place. An elaborate study of it by Dr. Black, including X-ray examinations and a minute comparison with the corresponding tooth of a modern Chinese child of the same age, showed unmistakably that the scientists had stumbled upon an entirely new type of hominid, neither human nor ape, though closer to the former than to the latter. Studies also showed that the creature' was distinct from the “Piltdown Man,” though closely related to it. The tooth was exhibited by Dr. Black both in ’Europe and America, and now -eposes in the collection of the Chinese Geological Survey at Peking. Dr. Bohlin went to Cnsukoutein last autumn, and again worked unsuccessfully under trying conditions for several months. As the temperature dropped it became increasingly difficult to keep on with the job, and he had to sit at meals with his hands gloved to prevent them from freezing. Nothing new could be found, and he was ordered back to Peking. But on the very last day, when sifting through the loose sand which had been thrown out from the excavations, he came upon a jaw with the teeth still in place . Since then there have been found parts of a number of skeletons, including several more jaws and teeth, a brain case, and what may prove to be leg and other bones. The scientists are hopeful that it may be, possible to get out a complete skeleton, in which case it. will be the first Eolithic, or “Old Stone Age,” skeleton ever discovered

These later finds have proved that there is no longer any possible question of the accuracy of the judgment based upon the discovery of the first , teeth, and that a distinct type of primitive man has been located. It has been definitely established that the “Peking Man” was more primitive than any hitherto known genus in the strictly human line, but was definitely human, though not of the genus homo to which we of to-day belong. .According to Dr. Davidson Black, this creature had a well-developed skull, revealing a brain of good size, and ais teeth were definitely human even though the jaw was of characteristic ape formation. Compared with the “Java Ape-man,” he was distinctly more advanced—which, in Dr. Davidson Black’s opinion, confirms the view that the “Java ape-man” was an offshoot from the main human line who wandered south, and lost touch with the parent stock, rather than an intermediary link between an anthropoid ape and man.