In China, legends and myths about "dragons" have existed since ancient times. The Chinese have long known that hard, stone-like, oddly shaped animal bones and teeth are often buried underground, and that these bones and teeth have medicinal properties such as stopping bleeding. The imaginative Chinese naturally called these strangely shaped and somewhat "miraculous" bones and teeth "dragon bones" and "dragon teeth."
We now know that these so-called "dragon bones" are actually vertebrate fossils, especially the skeletal fossils of mammals, including elephants, rhinoceroses, horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, deer, and so on; the so-called "dragon teeth" are the fossilized teeth of these animals.
China's "dragon bones" attracted the attention of Western scholars very early on. In the late 19th century, a German doctor named Habel came to Beijing to practice medicine and bought many "dragon bones" and "dragon teeth" from Chinese medicine shops. In 1900, the Eight-Nation Alliance attacked Beijing, committing atrocities of burning, killing, looting, and plundering. Beijing was ravaged, and people were struggling to survive, let alone seek medical treatment. Habel's business could no longer continue, and he had to return to Germany. When he left China, he took a box of "dragon bones" and "dragon teeth." In 1903, after returning to Germany, he gave these fossils to the renowned German paleontologist Professor Schlosser for research. Schlosser discovered a tooth that resembled both a human and an ape, which attracted the attention of the academic community.
In 1914, Johan Gunnar Andersson was invited by the Chinese government to serve as a mining advisor, assisting China in conducting surveys of coalfields and other mineral resources. He had a wide range of interests and extensive knowledge, and he never forgot the "dragon bones" of China that he had learned about in Europe, and he frequently collected fossils through various means.
One day in February 1918, McGregor Gibb, a chemist teaching in Beijing, showed Andersson some fossilized bone fragments encased in red clay. Gibb told Andersson that the fossil site was located at Jigushan, near Zhoukoudian, southwest of Beijing, and that there were many caves there containing similar deposits. Andersson was very excited and on March 22nd, he rode a donkey to Jigushan for two days of investigation.
Zhoukoudian is located about 50 kilometers southwest of Beijing. The strata in that area are well exposed, especially the Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits, which are remarkably well-preserved. On the mountains near Zhoukoudian, Ordovician limestone, formed 400 million years ago, is very well-developed and consists of thick layers. Limestone is easily dissolved by acidic water, and over time, the dissolving action of acidic groundwater in the cracks within the rock mass created numerous caves and fissures. Once these caves and fissures formed, the flow of water carried sediment from the surrounding environment, along with the carcasses of dead animals. Over time, these sediments accumulated, forming fissure deposits or cave deposits, while the hard parts of the animal carcasses buried within, such as bones, became fossils.
Chicken Bone Hill is a small limestone hill located about two kilometers southwest of Zhoukoudian Railway Station. The fossils were discovered in a type of dark red sandy clay within fissure deposits. When Andersson arrived, the limestone surrounding the fossil-bearing fissure deposits had been almost completely mined out for lime production, leaving only the deposits standing alone, like a small tower. Andersson conducted a small-scale excavation there, finding fossils of two types of rodents and one type of carnivore in large numbers.
For the next two years, Andersson focused on studying the large number of three-toed horses discovered in Henan, temporarily setting aside the matter of Chicken Bone Mountain.
Euryptophanthus
In the spring of 1921, the young Austrian paleontologist, Zdansky, received his doctorate in Vienna. Just as summer began, he arrived in China, intending to collaborate with Andersson on the excavation and research of the three-toed horse fauna. To allow Zdansky to experience rural life in China, which would benefit his future work, Andersson arranged for him to first go to Zhoukoudian to continue the excavation of Chicken Bone Hill.
In August, Andersson invited Glenn Graham, the chief scientist of the Asian expedition team from the American Museum of Natural History, to Zhoukoudian to teach Stansky advanced American excavation techniques. One day, while they were excavating at Jigushan, a local villager approached them and told them that there was another place not far away where they could collect larger and better dragon bones. They followed the villager to an abandoned limestone quarry 150 meters west of Zhoukoudian Railway Station (this is now known as Longgushan). The villager pointed out a fissure filled with deposits. After searching there for a short while, they discovered a pig's mandible fossil. Subsequently, they discovered many animal fossils, including rhinoceros, hyena, and bear; among them, the one that interested them most was a deer fossil with extremely thickened mandible bone, later named "Mammillaria."
At this new location, Andersson noticed some sharp-edged white vein quartz fragments in the deposits. He reasoned that such sharp, blade-like stone pieces would have no problem cutting through animal flesh, therefore, they were likely stone tools used by our human ancestors. Andersson was delighted with this discovery and speculation, and gently tapped the rock wall to Zdansky, saying, "I have a feeling that the remains of our ancestors lie here. The only problem now is to find them. Don't rush, and if necessary, dig this cave all the way to the bottom."
After Andersson and Granger left, Zdansky continued working at Zhoukoudian for several weeks, excavating a large number of animal fossils at this new site; among them was a tooth that was suspicious, but Zdansky did not recognize it as the tooth of a human ancestor and regarded it as that of an ape.
Andersson was not disappointed with Zhoukoudian. In the autumn of 1923, he asked Zdansky to continue excavating this new site. However, since the remaining excavable areas were perched high on steep cliffs, continuing the excavation was extremely dangerous. After collecting as many fossils as possible, Zdansky had to end his fieldwork and soon returned to Europe. In January 1924, Zdansky began studying these Chinese fossil specimens at Uppsala University.
Two years later, in the summer, while sorting through specimens, Szdansky finally identified a human tooth among the fossils at Zhoukoudian, which rekindled his interest in the "ape-like" tooth he had discovered in 1921. After careful study, Szdansky concluded that both teeth belonged to "humans." However, he was not entirely certain, so in his report published in 1927, he added a question mark after "human" ("Human?") to leave room for interpretation in his conclusion.
News of the discovery of human teeth fossils at Zhoukoudian reached Beijing in late September or early October 1926 and was announced on October 22. It shocked the scientific community like a bombshell, as no human fossils of such antiquity had ever been found anywhere else in Asia, not only in China. Furthermore, the fact that the fossils were discovered north of the Himalayas undoubtedly fueled the prevailing "Central Asia fever."
The discovery at Zhoukoudian was widely accepted by the scientific community at the time, though some skeptics were inevitable. In one conversation, Professor Graepe, a senior geologist and renowned American scholar teaching at Peking University, widened his eyes and asked Andersson, "Hey, Dr. Andersson, what's with Peking Man? Was it a human or a carnivore?" Andersson calmly replied, "Dr. Graepe, the latest news from Zhoukoudian is that our old friend is neither a man nor a carnivore, but rather a representative of a certain stage among them, and a lady at that!"
What an interesting conversation! In the months that followed, "Lady Peking" became synonymous with the major discovery at Zhoukoudian. However, we must especially thank Professor Graepe, whose use of the colloquial term "Peking Man" enabled the news of the discovery of ancient human fossils at Zhoukoudian to spread rapidly throughout the world, making Zhoukoudian and the ancient humans who once lived there a household name and a source of pride for the Chinese nation.
