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Article: An ancient wanderlust; a find suggests humans left home early.
- Article from:
- Newsweek
- Article date:
- November 27, 1995
- Author:
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Earlier that January day in 1990, the Chinese scientists had asked Russell Ciochon if they could meet with him out of earshot of colleagues at Beijing's Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology. Ciochon, a University of Iowa expert in early humans--hominids--was in China for a project on an extinct ape. His curiosity piqued, he invited Huang Wanpo and his wife Gu Yumin, to his hotel. After the usual pleasantries over jasmine tea, Huang reached into his pocket and pulled out the cast of a tiny jaw from an ancient--very ancient--human ancestor. It was from the Longgupo Caves, he said, in Sichuan province. Huang needed a Western collaborator to determine the ...