The Sinanthropus Population of Choukoutien (Locality 1) with a Preliminary Report on New Discoveries

Abstract

1) The newly found specimens confirm the fact that Sinanthropus represents an independent hominid type distinctly inferior to Neanderthal man and showing definite anthropoid peculiarities in many features. 2) The teeth of Sinanthropus exceed in size those of recent and Neanderthal man. Premolars and molars are very complicated in their pattern, especially in regard to the abundance of wrinkles and they are hardly inferior to those of chimpanzee, but they exceed them in coarseness. The upper canine of Sinanthropus is long and wide and projects remarkably like a tusk beyond the level of P1. The upper milk canine is isolated from both its neighbors by gaps, in the dentition of milk teeth. The teeth of recent man, in crowns as well as in roots, are simplified and reduced in comparison to those of Sinanthropus; this primitiveness is not basic but a secondary acquisition. 3) The teeth (milk and permanent) of Sinanthropus are more variable in size than those of a corresponding population of recent man. Therefore, a sexual difference must be recognized like that of the Simiidæ. 4) In two (three) of the four adult jaws there are hyperostoses— “Torus mandibularis”—on the inner side of the alveolar part, the largest of which is situated just linguad of the alveolar septum between P1and P2The same peculiarity may be found in prehistoric and in recent Chinese jaws and, according to Fürst, is very characteristic of the Mongolian racial group of mankind, especially the Eskimo. 5) In Sinanthropus all upper incisors are very much shovel‐shaped. This peculiarity too is found in the corresponding teeth of the recent Mongolian race in sometimes nearly 100% of the population. 6) The facts mentioned under 4) and 5) seem to prove that Sinanthropus takes his place in the direct line leading to recent man and that among present‐day mankind the Mongolian group has the closest relation to Peking man. 7) An inventory of all specimens of Locality 1 leads to the conclusion that the population of Choukoutien must have been composed of at least 10 children, 2 adolescents and 12 adults; perhaps one half of these were male and the other half female. 8) Most of these individuals are represented by teeth or jaws only, some by skull fragments and two or three by specimens of body bones. The missing bones cannot have been lost during the filling up of the cave or the fossilization process or during the subsequent excavations, but must have been absent already when the bones were imbedded in the rocks. 9) The Sinanthropus remains must have been brought into the cave as parts already severed from the body; perhaps they represent trophies or, more probably, the hunting spoil of head hunters. 10) There is not the least indication that this hunter was another and more advanced hominid type than Sinanthropus himself. Sinanthropus was the bearer of the cave culture of Choukoutien, the fire‐maker and the manufacture of the implements, perhaps also both the hunter and the cannibal who preyed on people of his own kind.

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