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Report from Former U.S. Marine Hints at Whereabouts of Long-Lost Peking Man Fossils
Scientific American 'blogs ^ | March 22, 2012 | Kate Wong

Posted on 03/29/2012 9:18:28 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

In the 1930s archaeologists working at the site of Zhoukoudian near Beijing recovered an incredible trove of partial skulls and other bones representing some 40 individuals that would eventually be assigned to the early human species Homo erectus. The bones, which recent estimates put at around 770,000 years old, constitute the largest collection of H. erectus fossils ever found. They were China's paleoanthropological pride and joy. And then they vanished.

According to historical accounts, in 1941 the most important fossils in the collection were packed in large wooden footlockers or crates to be turned over to the U.S. military for transport to the American Museum of Natural History in New York for safekeeping during World War II. But the fossils never made it to the U.S. Today, all scientists have are copies of the bones. The disappearance of the originals stands as one of the biggest mysteries in paleoanthropology.

...Lee Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and Wu Liu and Xiujie Wu of the Institute for Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing detail their investigation into a recent report concerning the location of the missing bones. Former U.S. Marine Richard M. Bowen, now in his 80s, claimed that in 1947, when he was stationed at Camp Holcomb in the port city of Qinhaungdao during China's Nationalist-Communist Civil War, he came across a box full of bones while digging foxholes one night. Spooked, he reburied the box. Soon thereafter his company evacuated Qinhaungdao...

Working with information from Bowen and a local expert on the harbor, the team formulated three best guesses as to the location of the stone barracks where Bowen said he dug up the box of bones. All three sit within an area of about 200 meters by 200 meters.

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.scientificamerican.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: ancientautopsies; campholcomb; china; godsgravesglyphs; homoerectus; paleoanthropology; paleontology; pekingman; qinhaungdao
Richard M. Bowen, circa 1947. Photo courtesy of of Paul Bowen

Report from Former U.S. Marine Hints at Whereabouts of Long-Lost Peking Man Fossils
Replica of one of the Peking Man fossils. Image: Yan Li, via Wikimedia Commons

Report from Former U.S. Marine Hints at Whereabouts of Long-Lost Peking Man Fossils
Grounds of the Hebei Provincial Food Export and Import Company, the most probable location of the stone barracks where Bowen dug up the box of bones that may have been the Peking Man fossils. Image: Lee Berger, Wu Liu and Xiujie Wu

Report from Former U.S. Marine Hints at Whereabouts of Long-Lost Peking Man Fossils

1 posted on 03/29/2012 9:18:31 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
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Unique Canine Tooth from ‘Peking Man’ Found in Swedish Museum Collection
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110525214316.htm
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2729167/posts


2 posted on 03/29/2012 9:19:23 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him)
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To: SunkenCiv

I thought this thread was about Andrea Mitchell’s husband.


3 posted on 03/29/2012 9:21:08 PM PDT by Batman11 (Obama's poll numbers are so low the Kenyans are claiming he was born in the USA!)
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The Archaeologica news links from a few days ago, reformatted. Some have been posted by now:
4 posted on 03/29/2012 9:22:24 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him)
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...

 GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach
To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.


5 posted on 03/29/2012 9:23:11 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him)
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To: Batman11

Did Peking Man become Beijing Man when they changed the pronunciation of Peking to Beijing?

Why didn’t Peking Duck become Beijing Duck?

I heard they changed the pronunciation because Beijing is much closer to how the city is pronounced in Mandarin. Don’t know if that’s true or not.


6 posted on 03/29/2012 9:24:06 PM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: SunkenCiv

Maybe they will find Patton’s gold there too


7 posted on 03/29/2012 9:45:23 PM PDT by Nifster
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To: Dilbert San Diego

8 posted on 03/29/2012 9:54:25 PM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Mater tua caligas gerit ;-{)
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To: SunkenCiv
I know where they are


9 posted on 03/29/2012 11:06:14 PM PDT by Oztrich Boy (This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel - Horace Walpole)
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To: Batman11; Oztrich Boy

;’)


10 posted on 03/31/2012 5:51:44 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him)
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Dragon Bones: The Mystery of the Peking Man
TruTV | prior to 2013 | Rachael Bell
Posted on 03/09/2013 3:07:58 PM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2995251/posts


11 posted on 03/09/2013 3:08:40 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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12 posted on 01/21/2015 4:30:30 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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