Disappearing Man

The precious bones--six skulls, a half-dozen lower jaws, 100 teeth, a few odd fragments of arms & legs--were carefully packed in two unpainted wooden boxes. First the boxes were stored in a secret vault at Peking Union Medical College. Then they were spirited away and delivered to the U.S. Marine barracks for shipment to New York City. That was in the fall of 1941. It was the last seen of Peking Man and fragmentary friends.

Peking Man--Sinanthropus pekinensis--was the paleontological sensation of the 1920s. To Paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews, Peking Man "ranks as the most important discovery in the whole history of human evolution." His first traces--two teeth--were found in 1921 in a "dragon-bone" cave* at Choukoutien, 40 miles southwest of Peking. Digging continued through 1941 under a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. High point was the discovery of the first skull in 1929. Geological data indicated that Peking Man lived over 500,000 years ago, which would make him older than the Piltdown and Neanderthal Man and possibly a contemporary of the Java apeman. He was small: 5 ft. 1 1/2 in. Peking Woman was 4 ft. 8 1/2 in. His brain was approximately 20% smaller than modern man's.

His hurried departure in 1941 was caused by the Chinese Government's fear that its paleontological treasure would end up in Japan. Sure enough, the Japanese general in charge of Peking, nudged by Jap scientists, conducted a thoroughgoing search for Peking Man. If the Japs ever found him, they never let on.

Another big search for the missing boxes is now in progress. The Chinese are methodically checking freight stations all through the Peking area. The Marines, who presumably saw him last, are quizzing everyone remotely concerned.

Even if Peking Man is never found, his loss would not be serious. Casts of all his bones are owned by museums the world over, and the best molds are still safe in Peking.

* To many Chinese, all fossils are "dragon bones." Along with tiger claws, bat dung and blood from a brigand's heart, fossils used to be powdered, dissolved in acid and used as a specific for every indisposition, from dysentery to bullet wounds.

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