Davidson Black was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1884. Black showed an early interest in biology and natural history and pursued a career in science despite a long family tradition in law. In 1903, he entered the medical school of the University of Toronto, graduating in 1909 with M.D. and M.A. degrees. Upon graduating from medical school, Black accepted a faculty appointment at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. His primary responsibilities were in anatomy, but Black found an outlet for his interests in anthropology by helping in the expansion of a museum of comparative anthropology and anatomy. His studies in anthropology continued on sabbatical leave in 1914. In Manchester, England, Black studied anthropology under noted paleoanthropologist Grafton Elliot Smith.
In the early twentieth century, the scientific community was divided over the question of whether Asia or Africa was the birthplace of humanity. Black argued in favor of Asia, basing his position on the notion that evolutionary patterns and climate are closely interrelated, and the fact that geological evidence showed that China's climate had been suitable for the survival of ancient humans. Black's conviction was supported by a German physician's collection of mammal fossils.
In 1920, Black accepted a post as an anatomist at Peking Union Medical College. He welcomed the opportunity to go to China and the prospect of setting aside time to hunt fossils. Immersed in his duties at the college, Black laid aside his work in anthropology. However, in 1926, when Austrian paleontologist Otto Zdansky announced the discovery of two fossil hominid teeth at Zhoukoutian's Dragon Bone Hill site, Black successfully persuaded the Rockefeller Foundation to support a large-scale excavation at the site and again he was drawn into paleoanthropology.
Shortly before the end of the 1927 field season, Birger Böhlin, a Swedish paleontologist, found a beautifully preserved left lower molar. Based on this and the two earlier excavated teeth (which he had not seen), Black boldly proposed a new hominid genus, which he named Sinanthropus pekinensis, or "Chinese man of Peking." Basing a new genus on such scanty evidence invited criticism, and his scientific colleagues refused to legitimate his claims for Peking Man. To gain support, Black traveled worldwide and allowed examination of the tooth, which he carried with him on a watch chain.
It was 1929 before additional finds of importance were discovered at Zhoukoutian. Chinese paleontologist W. C. Pei found a nearly complete skull of Peking Man partially embedded in a cave. After Black spent four months working to free the skull from the stone that encased it, he separated the bones, made casts of each, and reassembled the skull. Estimates of the brain capacity of Sinanthropus pekinensis placed it within the human range.
Based on the 1929 find, excavations were broadened and continued for nearly ten years. Black oversaw the work, kept detailed records, made casts and drawings, and photographed the finds from his Beijing laboratory.
Black died in 1934 of a heart attack. Franz Weidenriech (1873-1948), a German anatomist and anthropologist, carried on his work. Weidenriech studied the fossil materials extensively and published his findings between 1936 and 1943. During World War II, the Peking Man fossils were lost and never recovered. However, thanks to Weidenriech's scholarly pursuits, Black's work has been preserved.
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