QUEST FOR MISSING LINK.

Waikato Times, Volume 109, Issue 18342, 30 May 1931, Page 14 (Supplement)

QUEST FOR MISSING LINK.

EXPEDITION TO CENTRAL ASIA. IMPORTANT FIND EXPECTED.

The London Sunday Times learns that a new quest for the "Missing lank is to be made in Central Asia, which many scientists believe to have been man’s earliest home.

Mali was found in December, 1929, Is the home of the human family* “The objection to that theory is that the ‘Peking Man’ is only one of three contemporaries, the others being the ‘Ape-Man 1 of Java, found in 1891, and the ‘Piltdown Man’ found in Sussex in 1912.

Professor. G. Elliot Smith, who was in China last autumn, states that an expedition is now going ffom Peking to the valley of the Tarim, in Eastern Turkestan, there to seek traces of the most primitive forms of human life, or of apes from which man—according to the theories of modei'n science was evolved.

“Early fossils of apes of the Miocene period were found In the Sivalik Hills, in India, and scientists engaged in excavating the “Peking man” have put forward the theory that the great factor which led, to the evolution of man was the raising of the Himalayas at the beginning of the Miocene period.

The expedition will be led by Pere Teilhard de Chardin and a Chinese palaeritologlst, Dr. C. C. Young, both of whom were in the expedition whicli discovered the “Peking Man" in 1929 Father Teilhard de Chardlil is one of the very highest authorities on the fossil remains Of mammals in Asia. Professor Davidson Black, of the "Peking Man" expedition believes that important discoveries bearing oil the beginnings of human life may be found near the sources of the Tarim. This river flows for 1500 miles across Central Asia till it loses itself in the Lob-nor Lake. No systematic exploration has been made there. Ancient Breeding-Ground. There is a theory that myriads of ages ago—it may be a million years, or millions—the climate of that part of the world was highly favourable to mammalian life, and that it became a breeding-ground Where originated great groups of animals now spread over the world.

Separation of tho Apes: “The raising of the Himalayas cut off one group of these apes frofli India, and north of these ranges' they would be subjected to entirely new climatic conditions; so they had to adapt themselves to the new circumstances or, become wiped out, The scientists favouring this' theory regard ah area north of the iSinkiartg province of China as the likeliest locality in which to find' the link.

“Man, or a very closely related anthropoid, actually did exist in Eastern I Asia at the close Of Tertiary, or the 1 beginning of Quaternary, time, "The history of the search for the missing link is 'of peculiar interest. In 1891 Dr. Eugene Dubois examined a series of likely deposits of gravel in Java, until by a marvellous chance he found the ‘Ape-Man,’ “Then, in 1912, the late Mr Charles "Dawson, • after; many, months of - observation in a. particular patch of gravel at Piltdown, Sussex was rewarded by finding the fossil remains of man there, while the Peking Man 1 ' has been made known to us- as the, ,outcome of a comprehensive search, exlending over several 'years, by a team of investigators of different nationalities. One after another men of insight and_ Imagination, stimulated by slight clues," pushed on with the search until bit ‘by-bit there wafe recovered 'the im.pressive series, of relics which estate iish upon. a. secure, foundation " our knowledge Of the earliest men. .' i “Hut ithe scientists are still -per-, severing in their search for -more evidence. -They are determined to trace ■the homes of; man s earliest ancestors and to find .the missing link." Before long, that link may he found , in the Tarim Vailey, north Of the Himalayas.”

"Extraordinary, hauls of fossils haye been made. Dr. Sven, Hedln's expedition, Jn 1927-28, found thirty dino-' saurs. ,-Mr,. 'Roy Chapman Andrews, the ; American , explorer, discovered traces of a Stone Age -culture in the Central Asian wastesi/aiid evidence of a population of miliiohs'Of human beings. That, he thinks, was about. 20,000 years ago.,. .■ - There are high hopes of the Tarim Valley 'Expedition. At fTrstUt will be a. sort-of.reconnaissance ---a search-,for; sites. suitable for , excavation. 1 k-A

■ "Events pi', great importance to scientific research may be expected shortly,” Professor Elliot Smith told' the Sunday Times; and no one speaks with higher authority. “Some peqpie suggest,” he continued, that the .area where the cave containing tlie fossils! - of. the Peking