(Image from here)įor now, there were bigger things lurking behind the counters in those Chinese pharmacies. The original fossils were lost during the Second World War. The fascinating tale of Peking Man and the sad loss of the bones can be read in more detail here.Ī cast of the skull of Peking Man ( Homo errectus) discovered in 1929. The cave also held the famous Homo erectusspecimens, named Peking Man. One geologist, Johan Gunnar Anderson, followed a trail from the pharmacy, to local villages, back to the source of the bones a limestone cave filled with sabre-tooth cats, bears, rhinos, and hyenas. And fossils could be linked to certain outcrops. Searching for clues to map coal and ore layers, some became aware of these medicinal pharmacies and that they housed fossils. In the early 1900s, prospecting geologists from Europe and America moved to China to map the layers of rock across the vast landscape. Discovered by farmers and villagers in the fields and limestone caves around the Chinese capital, Beijing (also known as Peking), they were sold to pharmacies where they were prepared into ‘medicine’. These dragon bones, of course, are fossils. In the early 1900s, powdered dragon bones were used to treat a whole range of different, very unrelated, ailments including, gallstones, malaria, liver disease, and even paralysis. And perhaps not really something you should try yourself. After one night take the bags out of the swallows, remove the powder and mix it with a preparation for strengthening the kidneys.” Take two young swallows and, after removing their entrails, stuff the bags into the swallows and hang them over a spring. “Wash the bone twice in hot water, then reduce it to powder and place it in backs of thin stuff. Here’s a jolly description of preparing the medicine from around 400AD (from Shapiro, 1974. It is not the place you would expect to discover new species of extinct creatures.įor centuries ‘dragon bones’ have been collected from the Chinese countryside, crushed down to a fine powder, and used to treat a surprisingly large array of aliments. You most certainly would see some oddities in a little old Chinese pharmacy bottles of potions and powders, skulls and animal skins all lining the shelves. The more exotic the better the ‘medicinal properties’. From enigmatic creatures of the animal kingdom, to the more toxic elements of arsenic and mercury, there is little that hasn’t been pounded, grounded and ingested. For thousands of years traditional Chinese medicines have used all sorts of slightly bizarre ingredients.

Giant gorilla skull exist