Tales of Peking Man Trivia Quiz

Answer: Cave System

Zhoukoudian is a natural limestone cave system. However, way before 1921 the roof of some of the cave had collapsed on top of what had previously been deposited inside. Scientists have charted thirteen layers of debris at the site where Peking Man was discovered. Fossils and implements have been found in Layer 13, however, the first skull of Peking Man, found in 1929, was located in Layer 11.

In 1966 Layer 3 yielded another such skull. By 1937, more than 10,000 pieces of stoneware, 200 human fossils belonging to 40 different people, and fossils from 200 animal species have been found at the site. Fossils have been found in 20 different locations in the cave system since then.

Answer: Davidson Black

Davidson Black earned a degree in medical science from the University of Toronto in 1906. He continued to study comparative anatomy before becoming an anatomy teacher three years later. It was while working in England in 1914 that he became interested in paleoanthropology; it was at that time that Piltdown Man, which turned out to be an elaborate hoax, had been discovered.

At the end of WWI after being discharged from the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, Black took a job at Peking Union Medical College, where he would become head of the anatomy department, and moved his family to China. Although he was interested in studying fossils during this time, the college did not support the study. Other scientists, however, were making fossil discoveries, and by 1922 Black had been given a Rockefeller Foundation grant to search on his own. It was then that he began to search at Zoukoudian.

Answer: Tooth

In 1926 two teeth were discovered at the Zhoukoudian site. Based on this discovery it was determined that a new species of humans had been discovered, which was named "Sinanthropus pekinensis". Many scientists were reluctant to come to such a far-reaching conclusion based on a couple of teeth.

While it is true that teeth may reveal a lot about an early hominid, teeth alone are not typically used to classify discoveries. It is known that early hominids had larger teeth that humans today; their diet, however, was much different.

Their main foods would have been pretty tough to eat - uncooked meat, nuts, seeds, and crunchy vegetables. Honestly, they were not in a position to be very choosy and their teeth would have received quite a workout.

Answer: Homo Erectus

Over time the archaeological site at Zhoukoudian yielded one of the largest fossil discoveries ever made. The 40 individuals represented by the fossils left behind five skullcaps, eleven mandibles, 147 teeth, and many other fragments. Currently classified as "Homo erectus pekinensis", it was decided that Peking man was a "Homo erectus". "Homo erectus" would have been an habitually upright walker, with longer legs and shorter arms than earlier hominid relatives.

He made and used stone weapons and there is evidence that he even used fire to cook his food.

It is believed that members of the species lived in small bands, and possibly coordinated efforts between different bands to assist with hunting.

Answer: Tool user

One of the characteristics that set Peking Man apart from other hominids was the overwhelming evidence that he used tools. A treasure trove of stone tools have been found at the Zhoukoudian site. Using stone from the nearby hills, Peking Man would have first used very primitive tools to break up other stones, which were then used to make the over 100,000 stone tools that were used as weapons or tools of production that have been found to date. Along with the stone tools, layers of ash have been found which scientists believe proves that Peking Man had use of fire and also knew how to manually start one.

Answer: Larger brain

Scientists have found that brains of modern humans vary in size. The average volume of an adult male brain is 1260 cubic centimeters, and for an adult woman it is 1130 cm3. Among the fossils found at the Zhoukoudian site were skullcaps; the skullcaps enabled scientists to accurately measure the size of Peking Man's brain. Peking man's average brain capacity has been calculated at about 1,000 cubic cm.

Some of the individuals, however, were close to 1,300 cubic centimeters! Peking Man also had a large brow ridge that would have helped to serve as protection for his brain, his teeth were quite large, and, according to some sources, his arm and leg bones were so much like those of modern humans that it is difficult to tell them apart.

Answer: True

Food gathering is probably the oldest occupation in the history of the world. Early hominids would have had to travel constantly in search of food, focusing on sources that could be attained easily without the use of tools. This way of securing food is perhaps better called scavenging or foraging, as early hominids were at the mercy of the area where they lived to provide edible foods among the wild plants and animals.

The use of tools, however, kicked things up a notch. Those who belonged to the same species as Peking man are believed to have been among the first hunter-gatherers approximately 1.8 millions years ago. Tools that have been found at the Zhoukoudian site offer evidence that this is how Peking Man would have lived.

This meant, of course, that Peking Man experienced a nomadic existence, moving as needed in order to find a food supply.

Answer: False

The debate over where early species of humans originated continues to be ongoing. Discoveries in the 1950s in East Africa have led some scientists to believe that species that are designated as "Homo" began in Africa. There are two suggestions as to how this happened. One is that they were directly related to earlier hominids, such as the Australopithecines; there are some who believe they were related to hominids classified within the "Homo" species, such as "Homo habilis" or "Homo ergaster".

Paleontology is a science that has to continually be open to changing ideas; experts in the field do not always agree. Many of the scientists who worked at the Zhoukoudian site at the time of the discovery of Peking Man believed that this was the proof needed to convince people that human origins were in Asia. It is commonly believed at this time, however, that early species of humans left Africa as early as two million years ago to settle in various locations in Asia.

Answer: It proved that Java Man was a hominid

Java Man was discovered on the island of Java in 1891-92 by Eugène Dubois. At the time of discovery he believed that Java Man was the missing link between hominids and humans and named the fossils "Anthropopithecus erectus". Some scientists at the time believed the fossils belonged to apes; others believed they were humans.

There were even those who believed the fossils were of a deformed ape. In 1950 Ernst Mayr noted the similarities between Java Man and Peking Man and placed them both on the line of mankind in the "Homo erectus" species. Java Man was reclassified as "Pithecanthropus erectus" and Peking Man has become "Homo erectus pekinensis".

Answer: They are missing.

After the initial discovery of Peking Man the fossils were stored at Union Medical College in Peking. That is where the paleontologist who studied them worked, and it seemed to be the logical place to store them. In 1941 Beijing was occupied by Japanese military forces. As a way to keep the fossils safe, it was decided that they would be shipped to the American Museum of Natural History, which is located in New York City. Marines who were stationed at Camp Holcomb in Qinhuangdao, China, were entrusted with the task of placing the valuable cargo on a ship, but it disappeared en route.

Was the ship they were on sunk? Did unsuspecting people find the bones and grind them up to use in Chinese medicine? Are they buried at the Camp Holcomb site still today? Theories abound. It is fortuitous that the original plaster casts still exist today, along with four of the teeth that made their way to the Paleontological Museum of Uppsala University in Sweden. You see, one of the original scientists who worked at the Zhoukoudian site was a geologist from Sweden named Johan Gunnar Andersson. He had apparently shipped some of the teeth to the university in the 1920s, but they had remained there in an unopened crate until 2011! They represent what remains of the historic discovery.