The Peking man fossils were lost 79 years ago. How did it come into being?

We are no strangers to Beijingers. History books and museums will put him in a very important position, mainly because it is the earliest hominid fossil in China and a very representative homo erectus fossil. But other homo erectus fossils may not be familiar to many people, such as Wushan man, Jianshi man, Yuanmou man, Lantian man and so on. In fact, homo erectus fossils are widely distributed, and Peking man fossils are the most legendary one.

Many people have heard of fossils in pharmacies? Does Wang know Oracle bones because of illness? In fact, at the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century, pharmacies not only? There are many clues about ancient humans hidden in the scapula of animals once used for divination.

What were these bones called at that time? Keel? When people dig the keel, they will sell it to pharmacies for a little money. There is a limestone mountain near Zhoukoudian, Fangshan District, Beijing. Locals will always find some keels when they start quarrying there. Therefore, this mountain was named Gulong Mountain and became a place for people to dig. Keel? A nice place.

19 18, Swedish geologist An Tesheng came to China and heard that there were keels in pharmacies near Longgushan and Zhoukoudian, so he went to Zhoukoudian to investigate. Three years later, Austrian paleontologists Stensky and An Tesheng excavated in Zhoukoudian. They found more than 20 kinds of animal skeleton fossils, most of which were extinct. It was not until 1923 that the discovery of two teeth made the fossil accumulation in Zhoukoudian have extraordinary significance.

The first site of Zhoukoudian site: the ape-man cave, with two teeth, one is the left maxillary central incisor and the other is the left mandibular first molar, which is the earliest discovered Peking ape-man fossil. Therefore, the discovery site was named the first site of Zhoukoudian site, namely the Ape Cave.

1929, China paleontologist Pei Wenzhong presided over the excavation of Zhoukoudian, and in February of that year, the first complete Peking man skull was discovered. In the following 1 1 years, people found different bones belonging to 40 individuals in Zhoukoudian, including skulls and mandibles from men, women and children. The name of this ancient human group also comes from the original? Chinese ape-man Beijing species? Became? Homo erectus in Beijing? That is what we call Beijingers. Unfortunately, all the fossil data were lost during the transportation of 194 1 year and have not been found so far.

What do Beijingers look like? The loss of fossil data is a great loss, but it does not mean that the appearance of Beijingers cannot be traced back. On the one hand, all the pictures, words and model materials of fossils were left behind, on the other hand, the excavation of Zhoukoudian did not stop, and later people found teeth, humerus, tibia, mandible, frontal bone and occipital bone there.

Coincidentally, the skull model data and the frontal bone and occipital bone discovered later can restore a complete skull, which also provides a reference for portrait restoration.

Generally speaking, Peking man's skull is primitive, but his body is very similar to that of modern people, which seems to indicate that the evolutionary order of brain and trunk is uncertain in the process of evolution. The evolution of the brain is very important, but the body may take the lead in making changes to adapt to the environment.

The most obvious features of Beijingers' faces are developed brow bones, broad cheekbones, prominent snout and thick bones. Compared with the spherical skull of modern people, the head is slightly flat and long, the frontal bone is flat, and the brain volume is about 1 100 ml. Their brain anatomy may be obviously different from that of modern people, which also enables Beijingers to make tools and use fire, but they may still not have the ability of language communication.

From the perspective of body bones, Beijingers are shorter than modern people. The average height of men is about 1.6m, and that of women is about1.5m.. Finally, Beijingers became extinct about 200,000 years ago. At about the same time, Homo sapiens went out of Africa and eventually became the ancestors of modern people.