EARLY MAN IN CHINA

Taranaki Daily News, 8 July 1930, Page 7

EARLY MAN IN CHINA

SKULL OF THE PEKIN FOSSIL. VALUE OF RECENT DISCOVERIES. Izi a recent issue of the Times, professor G. E. E. Smith points out that the wonderful ekull of the fossil man of Pekin, found at Choukoutien of Dccmebr 2 last, is the most impressive and probably the most important contribution to the knowledge of early Pleistocene man that has yet been made. From time to time during the last three years reports have been issued in the scientific and public Press of the progress of the recovery of fragments of a new member of the human family, to which nearly three years ago the distinguishing name Sinanthropus ■was given. The discovery, in November, 1928, of fragments of two jaws rvealing features which hitherto were unknown in any other member of the human family except the Piltdown man, suggested the idea that there had been found in the extreme east of the great Eur-Aeiatie continent a type of early Pleistocene man akin to his contemporary in the extreme west of that great land mass. Some support was given to this idea by the fact that the jaws were associated with fragments of a brain case which obviously was roomier than that of the earliest and most primitive remains of man so far discovered, the Pleistocene fossil from Java, Pithecanthropus, which was found thirty-nine years ago. The relative thinness of the skull found in China, however, suggested that there was a profound difference between the Piltdown man and the man of Pekin. The discovery last December of an almost complete brain case of Sinanthropus, an event which is unique in

th© history of these researches in human palaeontology, ehowed at once that the fossil man of Pekin differed far more from the Piltdown man than had previously been suspected. It revealed a form so closely resembling Pithecanthropus as to suggest the possibility that after all the newly-dis-covered fossil from' China might be simply another member of that genus. The newly-discovered fossil was embedded in very hard stone (travertine), and the laborious process of clearing it from this matrix has required great patience and skill. The Times correspondent reported the official statement given at the annual meeting of the Geographical Society of China on March 29, and announced that Professor Davidson Black had succeeded in the difficult task of fleeing tho interesting fossil from its stony matrix. Now that the skull is cleared, there is revealed for the first time the whole brain case of an early Pleistocene man. This thrilling experience provides us with much more definite information concerning, the type of one of our remote ancestors than most of us dared hope ever to obtain. The whole architecture of tho part of the skull surrounding the ear differs profoundly from the most primitive human condition hitherto known—namely, that revealed in the Piltdown skull. In Sinanthropus we have a condition of affairs which much more closely resembles that found in the gorilla and the chimpanzee than in any known human skull, in fact, adds yet one more very emphatic demonstration of the close affinity .of the human family to the African anthropoid apes. The clearing of the skull also enables us to correct certain misconceptions which arose from the incomplete evidence we had last year. The brain case is very much thinner than that of the Piltdown man. The recovery of the complete skull of Sinanthropus shows that the thicknes of the skull varies in different regions, but it is definitely thicker than that of modern man, although it does not attain the phenomenal thickness of the skull of the Piltdown man. To sum up the evidence revealed by this most startling discovery in the whole history of human palaeontology, it can be said that, while Pekin Man presents features analogous to those of Pithecanthropus and Neanderthal Man, he belongs, to a genus which is definitely distinct from both, but approximates more nearly to his Javan contemporary Pithecanthropus than to his relatively recent successor Neanderthal Man. His brain case is definitely bigger than that of Pithecanthropus, but” the features of the base of the skull (which unfortunately are unknown in the case of Pithecanthropus) display startling simian characters which suggest a close affinity between the most primitive members of the human family and the anthropoid apes of Africa. Dr. Davidson Black is to be congratulated on the skill and insight he has shown in taking advantage of his great opportunity. The detailed investigation of the fossil will be awaited with particular interest, because it promises to shed a brilliant ray of light upon the nature of our earliest human ancestry.