Unique Canine Tooth from 'Peking Man' Found in Swedish Museum Collection

ScienceDaily ^ | May 26, 2011 | Uppsala University

[SunkenCiv]

Swedish paleontologists were the first scientists to go to China in the early 20th century, and they carried out a series of expeditions in collaboration with Chinese colleagues. They found large numbers of fossils of dinosaurs and other vertebrates. The material was sent to Sweden and the well-known paleontologist Carl Wiman, who identified and described the fossils. But when the direction of research changed after Wiman's death, 40 cartons were left unopened and forgotten -- until know. In recent weeks, they have been opened by Per Ahlberg, his colleague Martin Kundrát, and Museum Director Jan Ove Ebbestad, who had drawn attention to the cartons in the storeroom at the Museum of Evolution.

Recently, they have gone through the material together with leading Chinese paleontologists from the Beijing Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, who were excited when their Swedish colleagues contacted them. The Museum of Evolution has the best collection of Chinese fossils of dinosaurs and other vertebrates outside of China, and the contents of the 40 cartons further enhance the value of the collection.

The fossil material comes from several different areas in China. In Zhoukoudian, southwest of Beijing, a canine tooth was found from Homo erectus -- that is, Peking man. Then rich finds were made of skulls and other skeletal parts, but all of this disappeared in a mysterious way during World War II. All that remains in China today are five teeth and a few pieces of skull bone that were found in the 1950s and 1960s. So the three teeth from Peking man at the Museum of Evolution have been regarded as being among the most valuable parts of the collection. And now they have uncovered a fourth tooth -- and it is untouched.

[SunkenCiv]

Tooth from Homo Erectus found at the Museum of Evolution, Uppsala University. (Credit: Uppsala University)

[SunkenCiv]

Ancient Autopsies
Peking Man Lived 200,000 Years Earlier Than Thought
· 07/23/2009 9:11:55 PM PDT · · Posted by Ethan Clive Osgoode · · 39 replies · · 616+ views · · National Geographic · · March 12, 2009 · · Brian Handwerk ·	Peking man -- the group of early humans whose 1920s discovery gave a big boost to the theory of evolution -- lived hundreds of thousands of years earlier than previously believed, a new study says. The new dates would also place Peking man in a more hospitable, cooler time period in China's Zhoukoudian region, which today is the world's foremost source of Homo erectus fossils. Ciochon hypothesizes that a prolonged mass migration of Homo erectus from Africa, which began about two million years ago, eventually came to something like a fork in the road. Reaching southern China, the early humans would have come upon...

[SunkenCiv]

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[Fred Nerks]

A replica Homo erectus skull reconstructed from some of the Zhoukoudian fossils.

Nature

[Silentgypsy]

He looks happy.

[Fred Nerks]

I would be too...if I had his teeth.

[allmendream]

Did you say smiling Homo Erectus?

[fieldmarshaldj]

Pudding face.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks!

[grumpa]

Is evolution good science or a creation story:

http://www.faithfacts.org/evolution-or-creation/Evolution-Science-or-Creation-Story

[JoeProBono]

[Silentgypsy]

I had to look up “pudding face.” Too much information. Ugh.

[packrat35]

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/forensics/peking_man/index.html

[fieldmarshaldj]

No, I didn’t mean the urban dictionary definition... I meant those silly Jell-O pudding ads as of late with the crazy grinning people.

[Silentgypsy]

Oh, thank goodness! I’m not too seriesly affected by the media (bigheadfred calls it LUAR—living under a rock.)

[gleeaikin]

It looks as if the canines of Homo Erectus had already become similar to modern mans uniform line, rather than the long protruding canines of apes. Sudden thought. Were vampires remnant humanoids with longer canines and cannibal habbits?

Given the revised dating, I wonder if the cold period/ice age could have been precipitated by the Long Valley, CA caldera event around 700,000 years ago? Also, perhaps they were very hairy. My late husband, whom I swear must have had at least 4% Neanderthal genes, was very hairy.