Lost and found
After the discovery of Peking Man in 1921, the excavation of Zhoukoudian underwent a golden period from 1927 to 1937, presided over by Canadian experts and many Chinese scholars. All together, nearly 200 human bone fossils were found.
But as China entered war, starting from the Lugouqiao Incident in 1937, the excavation was abruptly stopped. Many of the unearthed bones kept in Beijing also disappeared when the Japanese invaded the city during the Second World War.
In 1949, only a short time after the foundation of the People's Republic of China, the excavation that had been suspended for 12 years was resumed.
In 1966, under the charge of Chinese expert Pei Wenzhong, a frontal bone, an occipital bone and a tooth were found at the Zhoukoudian area.
News about discoveries at the Peking Man site and the loss of such evidence has been continuously spread over the years. Many of those rumors were finally verified last May.
Fourth tooth found in Sweden
Palaeontologist Otto Zdansky and Johann Gunnar Andersson found three teeth at the Peking Man site during the 1920s, and brought them back to Sweden with many other unearthed items for further study.
Sweden's well-known paleontologist Carl Wiman identified and described the fossils. But when the policy of research changed after Wiman's death, 40 containers were left unopened and forgotten.
Just a few weeks ago, Per Ahlberg, professor of evolutionary developmental biology at Uppsala University, along with his colleagues Martin Kundrat and Museum Director Jan Ove Ebbestad, noticed the boxes in a museum storeroom.
They went through the material and discovered a canine tooth. Later they contacted Chinese experts Liu Wu and Tong Haowen, from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, for further study.
"This is an extremely important find. It is the only canine tooth in existence. It can yield important information about how Homo erectus lived in China," said Liu.
