Which archaeologist discovered the peking man

The genetic evidence proved that Peking Man has no living descendants among modern Chinese. All modern Chinese are direct descendants of a new species of modern humans that formed in Africa around , years ago. The Chinese fossils probably date to between , and , years ago, but examples of essentially the same species have been found in many other places and of many different dates.

What is clear, however, is that all evolutionary branches from the species eventually died out: the last, the European Neanderthals, perhaps as recently as 35, years ago.

Africa continued to be an evolutionary crucible in which new species were periodically created, until it finally produced a super-intelligent species capable of the cultural adaptation necessary to colonise and dominate the whole of the planet: Homo sapiens , modern humans.

Almost all of these fossils were missing during World War II. Over the past 90 years, more fossils of ancient human dating back to the Pleistocene about 2. The latest studies on Zhoukoudian sites show that the homo erectus in Far Eastern and African Homo can be grouped as the same species due to their similar characteristics, Wu said.

She said that different homo erectus branches may have existed in the late Middle Pleistocene of China with complex physical characteristics and large internal variation. Gao and other scholars have kept searching for clues about the missing fossils at home and abroad, but found none. Olsen from the University of Arizona, adding that the legacy is of great significance for its "interdisciplinary perspective, long-term international collaboration and integrated paleoanthropological orientation.

Theories as to their fate abound. Others say that they were captured by the Japanese and sank with the ship Awa Maru in In , an American woman claimed to have a box full of skulls that her husband brought home after the end of WW2. For more This Day in History stories, click here. Jun 25, Archeologist conducting a rescue excavation in the Zhoukoudian Caves Picture by Luo Xiaoguang China Wednesday began a rescue excavation in the Zhoukoudian Caves in a suburb of Beijing, where the skulls of "Peking Man," or Homo erectus, were found in the s and s.

The following is a chronology of excavation and finds at the site: In February , Johann Gunnar Andersson, a famous Swedish geologist and archaeologist, made a survey at the hill near Zhoukoudian, which was then called "Chicken Bone Hill", and colleted numerous rodent fossils.

These fossils had been mistaken by local people for chicken bones, giving rise to the name of the hill. The site was later designated as Locality 6 of the "Peking Man" site. This survey inspired further expeditions.