The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) commemorated here Tuesday the find of the first Peking Man skull 75 years ago and also the 100th anniversary of birth of its finder, late professor Pei Wenzhong.

Pei, one founding father of paleoanthropology in China, stumbled upon a broken fossilized skull of man-like ape on Dec. 2,1929.

The skull fossil and other relics found nearby proved first groups of early human beings, or homo erects, were living in slopes of the Zhoukoudian site, which is located southwest of the downtown.

Western anthropologists started to excavated the site in 1921. After Pei, Jia Lanpo and others found another five intact fossilized skulls of Peking Man in the 1930s. However, all the treasured skulls were missing during wartime in the 1940s.

Global scientists believe that the site, thanks to its unique geological structure, might contain much more relics which have yet to be found.

Zhoukoudian is still the best place throughout the world to study homo erects, they said.

In December 1987, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) inscribed Zhoukoudian site to the World Heritage list as a cultural heritage.

In the past 75 years, Vice CAS President Li Jinghai said, many world-recognized scientists led research work in the Zhoukoudian site. The CAS welcomes international cooperation in joint research in the field, Li said.

"If my father knew the great academic achievements made by other Chinese scientists," Pei Shen, son of Pei Wenzhong, said, "he would have been very pleased."
 
(Xinhua News Agency October 20, 2004)