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sad tale of the loss of a scientific treasure---amazing cache of homo erectus skulls in China ( )

A thorough account of the discovery, and loss, of the fossil remains of Sinanthropus pekinensis (currently Homo erectus pekinensis) -- aka Peking Man. What happened to the fossils has been a mystery for decades and is still a mystery to the present day. American Museum of Natural History curator Harry Shapiro (now deceased) follows the trail of the fossils as far as possible. He posits that they weren't lost when a ship thought to be carrying them was sunk during WWII. And instead that they were packed onto a train in footlockers as part of the personal belongings of Americans captured by the Japanese in China. What happened from there no one knows, but Shapiro tells a tantalizing story of a woman who may have had some of the bones in her possession. After contacting officials, she disappears as completely as the fossils themselves.

The scientific information on the evolution and life of Peking Man is dated, but the information on the disappearance of the bones is, alas, still fresh. ( )