[CPProt.net] New hope for finding missing Peking Man

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

 New hope for finding missing Peking Man 

    September 06 2005 at 12:12PM  
 
Beijing - Chinese researchers are hopeful of finding the remains of the
world's most famous cave dweller, the 500 000-year-old Peking Man, more than
60 years after they disappeared, state media said on Tuesday.

Several interesting clues have come to light in recent months, according to
members of a recently established committee charged with looking for the
Peking Man's bones and other missing relics, the China Daily reported.

If the clues lead anywhere, it could potentially mark a breakthrough in a
search that has lasted since the early 1940s.

Five skull fragments belonging to Peking Man were lost under mysterious
circumstances during World War II and have never been recovered.

Just in the last two months, the committee has received 63 tip-offs on the
whereabouts of the elusive relics, said Liu Yajun, deputy head of the
commission.

However, it may be a while before the Peking Man bones see the light of day,
as one of the clues has them buried under a residential building in Beijing.

The discovery in 1929 of the Peking Man was one of the most decisive steps
in the scientific quest to trace man's prehistoric development from the
apes.

Since Peking Man was first unearthed in a cave 50 kilometres south-west of
Beijing, archaeologists have found fossils belonging to 40 different
individuals and more than 100 000 stone implements and other objects. -
Sapa-AFP 
 



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