What ever happened to the Peking Man ??

Question

What ever happened to the Peking Man ??

Answer 1

Sinanthropus pekinensis. He's a Homo erectus... what about it?

Answer 2

The original bones found at Dragon Bone Hill near Zhoukoudian , China. The site was worked for a number of years and in 1941 many of the bones were prepared for shipment. This was 3 weeks before Pearl Harbor and Japan was already fighting in China.

The shipment disappeared. It's reported that U.S. Marines were assigned to escort the shipment; that it was transfered to Marine footlockers and that  the destination was the troop ship U.S.S. President Harrison. There are several reports where the bones ended up scattered by Japanese that searched a train, were buried, were stored in a Swiss warehouse or even that they made it to the Harrison, which was then sunk. There's no one agreed on report.

Several times it's been reported that the bones still exist and supposedly have been offered for sale. Again, no proof.

Peking Man as a species has gone the way of Java Man and Heidelberg Man. They are all considered to be Homo Erectus remains.

While much is made of the loss of the Peking Man bones ("there's no evidence") only five skull caps were lost. Excavation at Zhoukoudian continued into the 1970s and the remains of some 45 bodies were recovered. This, plus other remains collected throughout the world give a good picture of our early ancestor.