MILLION YEARS AGO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20481, 5 February 1930, Page 18

MILLION YEARS AGO.

BONES; AE .TEN MEN<

DISCOVERY IN CHINA.

CONTENTS OF LIMESTONE CAVE. The discovery of the fossilised bones of ten men who lived, perhaps, a million years ago, was recently announced by the Peking correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph. Thi3 find was made near Peking in a limestone cave which has already yielded very valuable an* thropological treasures. The most important item is a perfect nknll, examination x>f which, it is held, shows that at so remote a period of the world's history there existed on earth beings who had the power of thinking and who walked in an erect attitude. According to the view. taken by scientific authorities at Peking, including the distinguished Canadian, Dr. Davidson Black, who made important earlier discoveries at the cave, the "Peking man" excels in antiquity all previous finds of the sort. This "Peking man," in faet, is believed to bo the direct ancestor of the sri'csent human family.

The discovery was announced bya group of scientists representing tho Rockefeller Foundation and Geological Survey of China. Included in these palaeontological treasures is a Complete human skull comprising a perfect cranium and facial bones. This is described as a most remarkable and important contribution to the history of human development. In the same limestone matrix the searchers unearthed a prehistoric rhinoceros.

A preliminary investigation of the skull, which is now locked up in the safe of the Rockefeller Institute under the guardianship of Dr. Davidson Black, a Canadian palaeontologist, is believed to confirm the deductions made by scientists from other evidence as to man's ancestry, and relegates the Java Ape Man definitely into a minor position as a mere offshoot. The developed frontal cranium and the general measurements of the skull have convinced Dr. Black that the "Peking man" was a thinking being, standing erect, dating to the beginning of the Ice Ago. The ten fossilised- skeletons lay huddldd together in the small cave, indicating that they led a community life. That the "Peking Man," or "Sinanthropus Pekinensis," was a direct ancestor of the present human family is the emphatic opinion advanced. The first credit of recognising the importance of the find belongs "to Mr. J. G. Andersson, a Swedish. geologist, who, with Dr. Grajnger, palaeontologist of the American Museum of Natural History, surveyed the field in 1927. Continuing his investigation, Mr. Andersson, with another Swede, Dr. Bohlin, found the first tooth of the "Peking Man." Dr. Davidson Black persuaded the Chinese to permit sustained excavations, employing funds supplied by the Rockefeller Foundation. The Chinese insisted on the participation of a Chinese excavator named Peiwenchung, who actually exposed th<3 matrix bearing the skull and the ten skeletons.

Dr. G. Elliot Smith, ■who was asked to state his views on the most recent find of the remains of primitive -man, said:—"The announcement attributed to Professor Davidson Black of the discovery of the remains of ten examples of the "Peking Man" must be regarded*" as the most important find of the remains of ancient man that has ever been made.

"In the case of the ' Ape-Man ' (Pithefcanlhropos) in Java there was recovered simply the tantalising fragment of a skull with three tseth, and a thigh, boqe, with no certain knowledge that the leg bone was part. of the same individual as the fragments of the skull. In '-the case of i the 'Piltdown' man there was simply a ' fragment of the skull and a piece of the jaw. -_ , V', "Hence the discovery in China, of the remains, of no ten individuals belonging to a primitive type, which may ® be as old as the'Tilt<iown'.'man' in;Eng- { land and the in Java,' should C make it possible 't6>acquir€? a much' fuller knowledge of : the nature of the. earliest i known members of, ..the. human .' family than it seemed reasonable ever to ex- B pect." : v ; n