China starts largest ever paleo-anthropological project (4/9/2008)

Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian,which yielded in the 1920s the first (and still the largest) cache of fossils of Homo erectus pekinensis, historically known as Peking Man.

China is believed to be a country especially endowed with the fossils and materials related to early human evolution, next only to the African continent in terms of fecundity and systematism. These materials, including physical and cultural remains of huminids, their associated fauna and flora as well as the prehistoric sites, are essential for probing human origin and evolution. Yet, human fossils and paleolithic artefacts in China are far from being adequate and perfect because it has been plagued by a lot of weak points.

To cope with the problem, with the support of the Ministry of Science and Technology, a nationwide survey on China's paleo-anthropological sites and resources was officially launched on April 2 in Beijing.

The five-year 15-million-yuan (or US$2.1 million) project is the largest in China's studies of paleo-anthropology and paleolithic archeology. Jointly undertaken by the CAS Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), the CAS Institute of Geology and Geophysics and Peking University, the project has involved more than 40 researchers from such fields as paleo-anthropology, paleolithic archeology, Quaternary geology and chronology. Prof. WU Xinzhi, a CAS Member from IVPP, will chair its steering committee while Profs. LIU Wu and GAO Xing with IVPP are to work as its chief scientists.

According to experts, the current paleo-anthropological studies in China are weak in several aspects. First, there is a lack of systematic and scientific surveys in areas where remains of early human ancestors might be unearthed. Their valuable clues and materials are yet fully tapped. Second, work has not been done to fully exploit, collect, analyze and interpret data and information housed in some important sites, and more efforts are needed to trace, screen and characterize some unsettled or long-standing problems in the field.

According to experts, there are many missing links in the chronology of some fossilized materials, and the situation is especially discouraging regarding australopithecus and Homo habilis. In the research on the human origin, because the fossilized materials are fragmentary and extremely incomplete, many long-standing controversies are aroused without a solution. There is also a lack of in-depth or refined process of obtained materials and data with the state-of-the-art technology, leaving an apparent gap if compared with what have been done in developed countries. It is difficult for researchers to share and swap the research data and information as those materials are separately stored and preserved in different institutions.

Some of early research materials have been lost, in a dilapidated state or in need of repair and protection. All of these issues and problems have strained and curbed the healthy disciplinary development in this country.

To overcome these problems, the new project will conduct large-scale field surveys and materials gathering by taking advantage of the advanced S&T and information expertise. Further expeditions will be carried out on some important hominid or paleolithic sites across the country, so as to collect and sort out related data and information in an all-round way and make preventive recovery and interpretation of major archives. By improving the fundamental research conditions of paleo-anthropologists, the project strives to dramatically raise the discipline's scholarship, international status and influence, and promote interdisciplinary exchanges with geology, paleo-biology, paleo-environmental research so that all related disciplines might achieve a remarkable common progress.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by the Chinese Academy of Sciences

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