直立人研究的现状──纪念裴文中北京猿人第一个头盖骨的发现

１９２９年１２月２日,裴文中在周口店发现了北京猿人的第一个头盖骨,从而揭开了人类发展史上重要的一页。猿人(直立人)被当时人类学界承认为最原始的人类,确立了直立人为人类发展史的第一个阶段。１９世纪末Ｅ．Ｄｕｂｏｉｓ发现爪哇猿人的过程。他终生坚持猿人既非猿又非人的观点,引起长时期的争论。从１９２４年起,又发生了南方古猿是人还是猿的争论,为北京猿人化石的发现被广泛接受奠定了基础。本世纪３０年代以来,在亚、非、欧三洲的许多地点,有了更多的直立人化石的发现。在直立人化石的研究中,出现了直立人的分类问题,直立人与智人的界限问题,年代测定的准确与否对确定直立人系统关系的重要性,以及直立人与智人的连续性和替代性问题。

THE PRESENT STATUS OF HOMO ERECTUS: CELEBRA TING THE DISCOVERY OF THE FIRST SKULL-CAP OF PEKING MAN BY PEI WENZHONG IN 1929

The discovery of the first skull-cap of Peking Man by Pei Wenzhong on December 2, 1929 opened a new page in the history of human evolution. It was soon accepted by anthropologists of the world that Peking Man was the most primitive human beings.By the end of the nineteenth century, Eugene Dubois of Holland discovered a skull-cap of small brain size of about 900 cc. and it was named Pithecanthropus erectus (now Homo erectus). He insisted, then and for the rest of his life, that it was neither ape nor human, but an intermediate form. This discovery was debated and controversial for a long time.Since the discovery of Australopithecus from South Africa in 1924, it was also debated whether it was ape-man or man-ape? As Australopithecus was more primitive than Homo erectus, it makes the anthropological mind to be prepared to accept the Peking Man (a form of Homo erectus) as a low form of human being.From the thirties of this century, more fossils of Homo erectus have been found in different sites of Africa, Europe and Asia. In Africa an almost complete skeleton of Homo erectus was found in 1984 by Kamoya Kimeu of the hominid research group of the National Museum of Kenya, directed by R. E. Leakey at Nariokotome in the west side of Lake Turkana, northern Kenya. The skeleton is catalogued as WT 15000. WT stands for West Turkana. It belonged to a male about 12 years old with robust limbs and can be dated at very close to 1.6Ma B.P. with some confidence. Besides, two more crania of Homo erectus, ER 3733 and ER 3883,were found at Koobi Fora site also of Kenya. ER stands for "East Rudolf", the old name of Lake Turkana. They are dated at about 1.7Ma B.P. At Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, fossils of Homo erectus of younger dates were found. In Northwest Africa similar fossils were present at Ternifine in Algeria.Time and place for the first presence of Homo erectus outside Africa are not certain.In Europe, it was reported that archaeologists of the Republic of Georgia in cooperation with German scientists had found a well-preserved mandible of Homo erectus near Tbilisi in 1991. It was dated by paleomagnetism to be 0.9 or 1.6Ma B.P. however, a K-Ar date seems to suggest the older of the two.In Asia, many skull parts and pieces of Java Man have been found after 1930 in different sites in Indonesia. The earliest Homo erectus fossils dated near 1Ma B.P. A recent paper reported that it was even as early as 1.8Ma B.P. In China, excavations of the famous Locality 1 Peking Man Cave at Zhoukoudian continued from 1927 to 1937. Fossils representing 40 individuals of Peking Man including males, females, adults and juveniles were found. Since 1949, many more fossils of Homo erectus have been found from Lantian, Shaanxi, Zhoukoudian, Beijing, Hexian, Anhui, Yuanmou, Yunnan and other sites.In 1992 two skulls claimed to be Homo erectus were recovered in Yunxian, Hubei.But whether they are Homo erectus or early Homo sapiens is not certain yet.Chronometric dating of Peking Man Cave by different methods indicates that this population continuously inhabited there from roughly half a million years to 0.23Ma B.P. The date of Hexian Homo erectus is roughly corresponding to the upper part of Peking Man Cave. As to the two teeth from Yuanmou, it was first reported to be 1.7Ma B.P., but later it was dated to be less than 1Ma B.P.The study of the fossils of Homo erectus has made great progress and new questions also emerged, such as the classification of Homo erectus and Homo ergaster,the boundary of Homo erectus and Homo sapiens, the accuracy of the dates of certain Homo erectus and the problem of continuity or displacement of Homo erectus and Homo sapiens.