Davidson Black facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Davidson Black
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Davidson Black
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| Born | July 25, 1884 |
| Died | March 15, 1934 (aged 49) |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Known for | Homo erectus pekinensis |
| Awards | Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal (1931) Fellow of the Royal Society |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | paleoanthropology |
Davidson Black (born July 25, 1884 – died March 15, 1934) was a Canadian scientist who studied ancient humans. He is famous for naming Sinanthropus pekinensis, which we now call Peking Man. This was a very important discovery about human ancestors. He was also a member of The Royal Society and worked for the Geological Survey of China. In China, people knew him as Bù Dáshēng.
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Early Life and Education
Black was born in 1884 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. As a child, he loved spending summers near the Kawartha Lakes. He also enjoyed finding fossils along the Don River. He even became friends with First Nations people and learned their language.
Even though his family was involved in law, Black was interested in biology from a young age. In 1906, he earned a degree in medical science from the University of Toronto. He continued to study comparative anatomy and became an anatomy teacher in 1909.
In 1914, he worked in Manchester, England, with a brain expert named Grafton Elliot Smith. Smith was studying Piltdown Man at the time. This sparked Black's interest in how humans evolved.
During World War I, in 1917, Black joined the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps. He helped treat injured Canadian soldiers returning from the war.
Discovering Ancient Humans
After leaving the army in 1919, Black moved to China. He started working at the Peking Union Medical College. He taught about the brain and how living things develop. By 1924, he became the head of the anatomy department.
In 1926, Black wanted to search for ancient human fossils. The college encouraged him to focus on teaching instead. However, another scientist, Johan Gunnar Andersson, heard about Black's interest. Andersson had found some human-like teeth near a place called Dragon Bone Hill (Zhoukoudian) in 1921. He gave these two teeth to Black to study.
The next year, with money from the Rockefeller Foundation, Black started his own search around Zhoukoudian. Even though there was fighting in China at the time, Black and his family stayed.
The Search for Peking Man
Black then led a big search at the site. He brought together both Western and Chinese scientists. In the summer of 1926, two molars (back teeth) were found by Otto Zdansky. Zdansky described them in 1927. Black believed these teeth belonged to a new type of human. He named this new species Sinanthropus pekinensis. He even carried one of these teeth in a small copper case on his belt!
Black showed the tooth to the Rockefeller Foundation. They wanted more proof before giving more money. In November 1928, more fossils were found. These included a lower jaw, more teeth, and parts of a skull. This discovery greatly increased what we knew about human evolution. Black showed these new finds to the foundation, and they gave him $80,000. This money helped Black continue his research. He also used it to create the Cenozoic Research Laboratory.
More skull pieces were found later. Black would often stay up late into the night studying these important fossils.
The Lost Fossils
Sadly, most of the original Peking Man bones were lost. This happened during the start of World War II. They were being shipped out of China for safekeeping. However, the Japanese army took control of the Peking Union Medical Center. The laboratory with the fossils was searched, and all the remaining specimens were taken.
To this day, no one knows where these original fossils are. Only plaster copies remained. One copy is at the PUMC, one at the Smithsonian in Washington, and one in London.
In 1931, Black received the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal for his work. He died in 1934 from heart failure. The brain expert he worked with, G.E. Smith, wrote about Black's life after he passed away.
An extinct (no longer living) ape called Gigantopithecus blacki was named in his honor. Its fossils were first found in 1935.
Personal Life
Davidson Black married Adena Nevitt in 1913. She often traveled with him on his expeditions. They had two children, a son named Davidson (born 1921) and a daughter named Nevitt (born 1925). Both children were born in Beijing, China.
The Asia Hypothesis
Some scientists believed that humans first appeared in Asia. These included Johan Gunnar Andersson, Otto Zdansky, and Walter W. Granger. All of them visited China and found important fossils at Zhoukoudian, like the Peking Man.
Davidson Black strongly supported this idea, called the Asia hypothesis. Because of the amazing finds at Zhoukoudian, most research into ancient humans focused on Asia until the 1930s.
In 1925, Black wrote a paper called Asia and the dispersal of primates. In it, he suggested that humans might have originated in places like Tibet or parts of China. His last paper, published in 1934, also argued for human origins in Eastern Asia.
Famous Quote
- "The Peking man was a thinking being, standing erect, dating to the beginning of the Ice Age."*
