User:Grang001/Sinanthropus

Sinanthropus

The Sinanthropus is commonly known as one of the oldest hominid fossils. Beginning in the year 1928 to the year 1937, there were 14 fragmented skulls belonging to the hominids found in various locations in China. Peking and Chou K’ou-tien are two notable places with fossils found. It has been noted by researchers that it is likely that the fragmented skulls found were brought to the cave after being severed from the bodies they belonged to. This is very probable because of among the pieces found, most are teeth and jaw. Some skulls are missing large parts which indicates separation before they were fossilized, not the loss of pieces due to fossilization process. The pieces of bones were placed into the archaic genus group named Sinanthropus. Peking Man, Lantian Man, Nanjing Man, and Yuanmou Man were once part of the Sinanthropus classification, however throughout time, the four hominids discovered have been reassigned to different archaic genus. But because of this, when referred to, the Sinanthropus is primarily called “the Peking Man" despite  that being just one of the former specimens within Sinanthropus. The Peking Man is a generalization of Sinanthropus but has been scientifically researched and reclassified as Homo erectus pekinensis.

Features

At the time, the Sinanthropus were distinguished by the massiveness of the bone fragments that were found. The average cranial capacity found was measured at around 1075 c.c. More specificities described by researchers indicated that Sinanthropus has a different jaw than found in gorillas, similar cranial size to Pithecanthropus, and smaller molars than those found in Pithecanthropus Researchers were also able to conclude that the teeth found were larger in comparison to Neanderthal men found at the time and the upper canine was long, wide, and similar to that of a tusk. The difference in teeth size created variability among the genus.

Controversy

In the 1930s, many papers were published regarding the Sinanthropus and they sought to examine the new hominids and their similar features to other discovered hominids. Dr. Weidenreich was a well-known contributor who was also received blame for a controversy surrounding Sinanthropus. He wrote a research paper about the similarities found in Sinanthropus and Pithecanthropus, where he mentioned the cranial size, jaw proportions and teeth size. Another researcher took an opposing stand and stated that Sinanthropus was “clearly Neanderthaloid”. These two conversations sparked the questions revolving if the Sinanthropus was even to be considered a genus.