A tooth belonging to an ancient human ancestor known as Peking Man has been rediscovered in a forgotten box at the Museum of Evolution at Uppsala University after going missing during World War Two. The canine tooth was found in one of forty forgotten boxes at the museum in Sweden and scientists have now been able to learn more about the life of the ancient human who was thought to have lived between 750,000 and 200,000 years ago.
Chinese palaeontologists Liu Wu and Tong Haowen, from the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology in Beijing, have examined the tooth and the findings have been recorded in the journal Acta Anthropological Sinica.
Per Ahlberg, one of the team who discovered the tooth in the forgotten box, described the find as ‘spectacular’ and said that it reveals many things about the individual’s life. Dr Ahlberg told MailOnline ‘The crown of the tooth is relatively small, which indicates that it belonged to a woman. The tooth is quite worn, so the individual must have been quite old when she died.’ The tooth also had two large chips out of the enamel, which suggests it had been hit by something or damaged by biting into something hard. It is believed that the owner of the tooth may have been between thirty and forty years old when she died.