Peking Man Much Older Than Previously Thought

The success of Homo erectus in Asia is documented by many fossils. By far the best preserved and most recent are a collection of more than 40 individuals unearthed near Peking in the 1920s and 1930s. Collectively referred to as "Peking Man", these fossils had until recently been dated as being from 200,000 to 300,000 years old (see BIOLOGY 4/e: H. erectus in Asia, p. 525). Based on this date, it has been widely assumed that H. erectus and H. sapiens coexisted in Asia for an extended period, as H. sapiens fossils from Asia older than 300,000 years are well documented. New dating techniques applied to the limestone of the cave site where the fossils were collected have come to a different conclusion. It now appears that the Peking Man fossils are at least 400,000 years old, and possibly much older. H. erectus disappeared from Europe about 500,000 years ago, about the same time as these now-redated fossils, the last of H. erectus in Asia.

Source: "New Test Adds 100,000 Years To Age of Peking Man Fossils" New York Times, May 1, 1996.

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