Wu Rukang (吴汝康) (before 1967 his name was transliterated as Woo Ju-Kang) was born on 19 February 1916 in Wujin County, Jiangsu Province, in eastern China. His father was an elementary school principal. Wu graduated from high school in 1935 but due to his family’s poor financial condition he had to save money for a year before attending university. Wu entered National Central University (later renamed Nanjing University) in Nanjing in 1936 and completed a BS degree in biology in 1940. Wu Dingliang (Woo Ting-Liang), the director of the anthropology section of the Institute of History and Philology (歷史語言研究所), which was part of the Academia Sinica, hired Wu to work with him as an intern at the institute in 1940. The Institute of History and Philology had been forced to relocate to Kunming, in Yunnan Province, because of the Japanese invasion of China. Wu Rukang worked with Wu Dingliang from 1940 to 1942 studying human skeletons and conducting field surveys on the different ethnic groups in Guizhou Province. They also collected blood samples from the local people, determining their blood types and comparing them with the Han population in order to better understand the origins and relationships between these Chinese ethnic groups.

From 1942 to 1944 Wu was a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Guizhou University, but left to become an assistant researcher in the newly established preparatory office of the Institute of Physical Anthropology, part of the Academia Sinica, where he worked from 1944 to 1946. In 1946, Edmund V. Cowdry, an American who taught anatomy at the Peking Union Medical College from 1917 to 1921 before joining the faculty at the Washington University School of Medicine, arranged for Wu Rukang to travel to the United States to study at the Washington University School of Medicine, in St. Louis, Missouri. After obtaining his Master’s degree in 1947, Wu completed his PhD in physical anthropology under the supervision of Mildred Trotter in 1949 with a dissertation titled Ossification, Growth and Variation of the Human Maxilla and Palate Bone. It was during his time at the university that Wu met and married Ma Xiuquan, a fellow student in the biology department. As part of his research, Wu spent the summer of 1948 studying paleoanthropology under the direction of T. Dale Stewart at the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. He then spent the winter of 1948 in Minnesota working with G. Albin Matson, director of the Minneapolis War Memorial Blood Bank, where he learned techniques for obtaining blood type data from ancient human bones.

In the autumn of 1949, Wu returned to China, but his return was complicated by the break in diplomatic relations between the newly established People’s Republic of China and the United States. His friends and classmates at Washington University had encouraged Wu to remain in America. Alternatively, the family of Wu’s wife, Ma Xiuquan, encouraged the couple to join them in Taiwan, where the family had moved. Wu’s family, however, all lived in mainland China and his former mentor Wu Dingliang encouraged him to return to China, where there were far more opportunities to study human and ape fossils. Upon his return Wu joined the faculty of the Dalian Medical College where he served as a professor and the director of the Department of Anatomy. From 1953 to 1956 he also worked as an adjunct researcher in the Laboratory of Vertebrate Paleontology (古脊椎动物研究室). The Laboratory originated from the Cenozoic Research Laboratory, which was created in 1929 in conjunction with the excavations at Zhoukoudian that produced the famous Homo erectus (Peking Man) fossils. In 1953 the Cenozoic Research Laboratory was reorganized into the Laboratory of Vertebrate Paleontology, affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and in 1960 the Laboratory was renamed the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (古脊椎动物与古人类研究所). Excavations had recently reopened at Zhoukoudian and professor Yang Zhongjian, who later became director of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), invited Wu to examine some of the new fossils found there. It is from this point that Wu’s career became devoted to paleoanthropology. In 1956, he left the Dalian Medical College to become a full-time researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (at that time it was still called the Laboratory of Vertebrate Paleontology). Significantly, Wu also joined the Communist Party of China in 1957.

During his long career at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Wu conducted important studies of hominid and Miocene ape fossils and published on the subject of human evolution. Construction projects undertaken by the new Chinese government as well as the resumption of scientific excavations in China produced a wealth of new ape and hominid specimens. In 1949, excavations resumed at Zhoukoudian, where the original Peking Man Homo erectus fossils had been discovered, and soon new fossils were found at the site. Wu and archaeologist Jia Lanpo examined new Homo erectus teeth and limb bones found at Zhoukoudian between 1949 and 1951. They observed that the postcranial fossils resembled those of modern humans while the skull possessed “primitive” traits, which prompted them to comment that this could be linked to Friedrich Engel’s theory that the transition from ape to human was due to labor and therefore work led to the evolution of the hands and upper limbs (Wu and Jia 1954). Wu also analyzed some Dryopithecus fossils found in 1956 and 1957 in Yunnan province. Wu and his colleague Zhou Mingzhen described fragments of mandibles and maxillary bones belonging to the Eocene primate Hoanghonius stehlinii, which an IVPP expedition led by Zhou Mingzhen unearthed in 1953 (Wu and Zhou 1957). The Austrian paleontologist Otto Zdansky described the first specimen of Hoanghonius stehlinii in 1930, which was significant because it was the first primate fossil from the Eocene to be found in China. Many experts believed that Hoanghonius was a transitional form between prosimians and higher primates.

Wu next examined the so-called Tzeyang Paleolithic Man, a partial human cranium found in 1951 when workmen repairing a bridge on the Huangshanchi River in Tzeyang District, Szechuan Province discovered the cranium along with mammal fossils. Paleontologist Pei Wenzhong conducted excavations there in the autumn of 1951 and concluded the fossils were from the Late Pleistocene. This was the first Paleolithic human cranium found in southern China. Wu examined the fossil and concluded that it was early Homo sapiens but was more primitive than the Cro-Magnon fossils from Europe and possessed traits similar to the human fossils from the Upper Cave at Zhoukoudian, while also having some similarities to Sinanthropus (Homoerectus). He suggested that the fossil represented the “earliest fossil representative of the Neanthropic stage [of human evolution] so far found in China” (Pei and Wu 1957; Wu 1958b). Wu also described a Late Pleistocene human partial parietal bone and partial femur found in 1957 at Ordos, in Inner Mongolia. From their features he concluded they belonged to humans from the “Paleoanthropic stage” of human evolution [Neanderthal] in China and that their features were more generalized than the “classic” Neanderthals of Europe (Wu 1958a). Wu again collaborated with Jia Lanpo to examine fragments of a human skull found during excavations led by the IVPP in Guangxi Province in 1956. They determined that the fossils belonged to Late Paleolithic Homo sapiens. Wu thought the specimen was interesting because it did not possess “Mongoloid” features and he suggested that further fossils might provide information on the origin and distribution of the “Mongoloid race” in prehistoric times (Jia and Wu 1959).

When workmen found another Homo sapiens skull and partial skeleton, along with animal bones, in a cave in another site in Guangxi in September 1958, Wu conducted the examination of the fossils. Wu argued these human fossils were the oldest specimens of modern humans from China, older and more primitive than the Homo sapiens fossils from the Upper Cave at Zhoukoudian or the Tzeyang specimen. He concluded that the skeleton belonged to “a primitive form of Homo sapiens of an early type of evolving Mongoloid.” He proposed on the basis of these fossils and the Tzeyang specimen that the Mongoloid race may have originated in southwest Szechuan Province and was already emerging by the Late Pleistocene (Wu 1959). Wu also examined a partial human cranium found by farmers in Maba village, Guangdong Province in 1958. Based on the animal fossils found with the cranium, he argued it belonged to the late Middle Pleistocene or early Late Pleistocene. After comparing the cranium with Neanderthal and the Peking Man Sinanthropus fossils, he concluded that the Maba cranium belonged to the “early Paleoanthropic Stage” or Neanderthal stage of human evolution (Wu and Peng 1959).

The Peking Man Homo erectus (originally called Sinanthropus pekinensis) specimens first collected from the site of Zhoukoudian were among the most important hominid fossils discovered in China and there remained international interest in these fossils especially since new excavations had produced additional specimens (Wu and Zhao 1959). Paleoanthropologists continued to discuss the place of Homo erectus in human evolution and to investigate what the fossils indicated about the process of hominid development. Wu published a major paper on this subject in 1960 where he described the known Sinanthropus fossils and made some observations about their relationship to modern humans. Wu noted that Sinanthropus already possessed a fully erect posture and its arms and legs were fundamentally similar to those of modern humans. But it still had a somewhat apelike head. He noted a similar pattern in both Pithecanthropus and Australopithecus. Wu suggested that English biologist Gavin de Beer’s (1954) idea of mosaic evolution, where in the course of evolution some features of an organism change while others remain the same (resulting in different parts of the body evolving at different rates), might explain this unusual combination of characteristics in Sinanthropus. He also cited German-American paleontologist Tilly Edinger’s (1948) observation that evolutionary changes in the limbs and the method of locomotion tended to occur before evolutionary changes in the brain. Wu asserted that the evolution of the earliest primates appeared to follow Edinger’s proposal perfectly, with the evolution of hands for grasping occurring before major evolutionary changes in the primate brain, and that a similar pattern seemed to be present in the evolution of hominids. Wu agreed with other paleoanthropologists that bipedalism and tool use evolved long before the appearance of a larger brain in hominids. The earliest hominids used simple tools to gather food and to hunt, which in turn required some “primitive social organization” and an ability to communicate. He acknowledged the recent work of American paleoanthropologist Sherwood Washburn on the role of tool use and toolmaking on human evolution, but he also noted that this model of human evolution was consistent with Friedrich Engel’s theory that labor created man (Wu 1960).

In July 1963 researchers from the IVPP excavated a hominid mandible at Chenchiawo Village in Lantian County, Shaanxi Province and further excavations led to the discovery of a hominid skull and Middle Pleistocene mammal fossils in the nearby village of Gongwangling in October 1964. Wu conducted the analysis of this so-called Lantian Man (Wu 1964a; 1964b; 1966a; 1966b). He asserted that there were similarities, but also differences, between these fossils and the Sinanthropus pekingensis fossils from Zhoukoudian and the Pithecanthropuserectus fossils from Java. On this basis, he proposed that they belonged to a new species Sinanthropus lantianensis. Wu considered the Lantian skull to be more “primitive” than either of these two other species and he believed that the geological evidence indicated that Lantian Man was the “earliest ape-man found in China” and represented one of the earliest pithecanthropines discovered so far anywhere. Notably, Wu (1966a) acknowledged the recent agreement among paleoanthropologists that the Pithecanthropus and Sinanthropus specimens should be reclassified as Homo erectus, so he suggested the Lantian specimen be classified as Homo erectus lantianensis. On a patriotic note, Wu also remarked that these fossils were the first to be excavated and studied solely by Chinese scientists and therefore this represented a significant victory for Chinese scientists working independently of western scholars (Wu 1966b).

Normal life in China began to be seriously disrupted with the advent of the Cultural Revolution, which began in 1966 and only ended in 1976. During the Cultural Revolution the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology was taken over by workers of the Number One National Cotton Factory. They marginalized, humiliated, and sometimes physically abused the scientists at the institute and work was seriously disrupted at the IVPP until the Cultural Revolution came to an end. Because Wu had studied in America and worked with international scientists, he was labeled a bourgeois reactionary. In the summer of 1967, he and several other researchers from the institute were confined to a ten-square-meter house and were required to work at menial tasks. While intellectuals were the particular targets of the Cultural Revolution, the natural sciences were less affected than other disciplines. Many of the archaeological and paleoanthropological institutions continued their work to some degree during these years and they were among the first to reopen when the Cultural Revolution came to an end. Excavations at Zhoukoudian and other archaeological and paleoanthropological sites continued throughout this period. Work at the IVPP was suspended for about a year beginning in the summer of 1966, but by the early 1970s work began to resume there as well as at other institutions, museums, and universities (see Guldin 1994, 183–202).

As research at the IVPP resumed and new excavations were undertaken with the end of the Cultural Revolution, Wu began to work on new hominid and ape fossils. A major research project arose from the work of the Joint Excavation Team of the IVPP and the Yunnan Provincial Museum which unearthed Miocene ape fossils at Shihuiba, in Lufeng County, Yunnan Province between 1975 to 1983. Wu participated in field excavations in Lufeng in 1975, marking his first involvement in excavation work. In November 1976 the team found an ape mandible that resembled Ramapithecus fossils previously discovered in the Siwalik Hills in Pakistan. Beginning in the mid-1960s American paleontologists Elwyn Simons and David Pilbeam had argued that Ramapithecus (at that time known mostly from fossil jaws and teeth), was a hominid that was the ancestor of Australopithecus. During excavations conducted between October and December of 1981, the Chinese research team discovered three partial Ramapithecus crania and one mandible. They also unearthed two partial crania, two mandibles, and over a hundred teeth belonging to another Miocene ape called Sivapithecus (Wu et al. 1982). By this time there was some debate over the idea that Ramapithecus was a hominid and an evolutionary ancestor of the australopithecines. It is noteworthy that Wu and his colleagues in this paper acknowledge the debate over the phylogeny of Ramapithecus and they mention the seminar held prior to the International Primatology Conference held in Florence, Italy in July 1980 where there was agreement that the hominid and ape lineages had separated by the Miocene and therefore the idea that Miocene “members of the Hominoidea had direct ancestral/descendant relations with extant apes and man, had to be revised” (Wu et al. 1982, 108).

The discovery of new Sivapithecus and Ramapithecus fossils in Pakistan and Turkey in the 1970s and early 1980s, as well as new evidence arising from molecular anthropology regarding when the ape and hominid lineages had most likely diverged, led some researchers to reconsider the status of Ramapithecus. Peter Andrews and John Cronin (1982) combined the molecular data with the fossil evidence of a partial Sivapithecus skull from Turkey to argue that Ramapithecus/Sivapithecus belonged to the orangutan lineage and was not a hominid. Pilbeam’s discovery of a nearly complete Sivapithecus skull in 1982 reinforced the anatomical similarity between Ramapithecus and Sivapithecus and modern orangutans and this opinion was reinforced by the studies of these fossils by Steve Ward (Ward and Pilbeam 1983). As these events were transpiring in Europe and America, Wu collaborated with biologist Charles Oxnard, a professor at the University of Southern California, on an examination of the Ramapithecus and Sivapithecus fossils from China.

Some researchers had already suggested that Ramapithecus and Sivapithecus were not two distinct types of ape, but instead belonged to one and the same genus. Prompted by this suggestion, Wu and Oxnard undertook a comprehensive examination of all the specimens from Lufeng in the early 1980s. They ultimately analyzed three crania, four mandibles, twenty fragmentary crania and mandibles, and 278 teeth assigned to Ramapithecus as well as two crania, five mandibles, twenty-two fragments of crania and mandibles, and 290 teeth assigned to Sivapithecus. On the basis of these studies, they argued that at least two groups existed at Lufeng: one group possessed smaller teeth with a lesser degree of sexual dimorphism and the other possessed larger teeth with a larger degree of sexual dimorphism (Wu and Oxnard 1983a; 1983b; 1983c). They also proposed that the Lufeng fossils possessed “many features similar to those of orang-utan, but different from gorilla and chimpanzee. It is suggested that they are the early ancestor of orang-utan” (Wu and Oxnard 1983c: 10).

Wu continued to wrestle with the meaning of the Lufeng Ramapithecus and Sivapithecus fossils throughout the 1980s. With several colleagues, Wu again examined the complete collection of Lufeng specimens and they concluded that the morphological differences between the so-called Sivapithecus and Ramapithecus specimens were essentially the same as the morphological differences between male and female orang-utans. Therefore, the Lufeng specimens could simply represent fossils from males and females of a single species. As a result, according to the rules of zoological nomenclature and priority of names, they proposed that the Lufeng fossils should all be reclassified under one species named Sivapithecus lufengensis. They also noted that some features of the Sivapithecus lufengensis cranium were similar to Australopithecus afarensis and to gorillas and chimpanzees rather than gibbons (Wu, Xu, and Lu 1986). The following year, Wu took the additional step of arguing that the Lufeng fossils were sufficiently different from the Sivapithecus specimens from Pakistan and Turkey that they should be assigned to a new genus that he named Lufengpithecus lufengensis (Wu 1987; Wu and Wang 1987). Wu continued to contribute to the paleoanthropological discussion about the phylogenetic status of Lufengpithecus and its relationship to Sivapithecus into the early 2000s (Wu and Xu 2009).

Lufengpithecus was not the only new type of Miocene ape that was discovered at Lufeng. Wu and Pan Yuerong studied some partial mandibles and maxillae belonging to the Miocene ape Laccopithecus robustus that were discovered in the same site where the Lufengpithecus specimens were found. They noted that the Laccopithecus fossils resemble the Miocene ape Pliopithecus found in Europe, but they were also similar to Hylobates and are thus fossil evidence for the origin of modern gibbons (Wu and Pan 1984). They also collaborated on the analysis of some fossil mandibles belonging to a new form of adapid they named Sinoadapis carnosus that were also unearthed at Lufeng (Pan and Wu 1986). In addition to this work on Miocene ape fossils from Lufeng, Wu also conducted studies of newly excavated hominid fossils in the 1980s. Wu presented a paper on new Homo erectus fossils and new excavations at Zhoukoudian at a symposium organized by Eric Delson at the American Museum of Natural History in April 1984 (Wu 1985). Wu also examined and described a hominid skeleton discovered at Jinniushan. During September and October 1984, the Paleolithic Archeology Student Excavation Team at Peking University, which was led by Lü Zuné, discovered a nearly complete human skeleton at the base of Jinniushan (Golden Ox Mountain) in Yinkou County, Liaoning Province. The skull was badly crushed and Wu had to reconstruct it. Wu concluded that the skull’s morphology resembled that of early Homo sapiens (such as the Dali skull) more than late Homo erectus (Wu 1988a).

Wu studied the Homo erectus calvaria and partial mandible that Huang Wanpo discovered at Longtandong, in Hexian County, Anhui Province in 1980 (Wu and Dong 1982) and he analyzed thirteen Homo erectus teeth obtained from an apothecary shop that had been collected in Xichuan County (Wu and Wu 1982). Wu also returned to the topic of the Lantian Man fossils. He argued on the basis of morphological features of the Lantian Homo erectus cranium from Chenjiawo and the mandible from Gongwangling, as well as their geological ages, that these two fossils should be assigned to two distinct subspecies: Homo erectus lantianensis and Homo erectus gongwanglingensis. Notably, he also rejected criticisms of this idea made by other paleoanthropologists (Wu 1992). In addition to examining hominid fossils, Wu also published papers on the process of human evolution. In a paper summarizing the contributions of Chinese paleoanthropology to the study of human evolution, Wu reiterated his suggestion that Lufengpithecus appeared to be close to the common ancestor of the African anthropoid apes and the australopithecines. He agreed with the opinion of the international paleoanthropological community that Homo erectus had first originated in Africa and then migrated into Asia around one million years ago. However, Wu also expressed support for the Multiregional Hypothesis of human evolution (Wu 1989).

This idea was proposed by Milford Wolpoff, Alan Thorne, and Wu Xinzhi in 1984 in a classic paper. The Multiregional Hypothesis pointed to observed morphological continuity in hominid fossils ranging from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens over much of the Old World. To explain this, they proposed that Homo erectus was the first hominid to leave Africa, about a million years ago, and that these hominids dispersed to populate much of Asia and parts of Europe. Populations of Homo erectus then settled in regions with quite different environments and they subsequently adapted to local conditions. As these populations became sedentary and somewhat geographically isolated from other populations, regional differences began to appear among them while limited contact between these different groups ensured that the populations continued to remain one species. Wolpoff, Wu Xinzhi, and Thorne argued that these regional populations of Homo erectus gradually evolved into modern Homo sapiens while retaining regional ‘racial’ characteristics. In his paper, Wu also recognized the clear existence of a morphological continuity in hominid fossils from Homo erectus to modern Homo sapiens in China. According to Wu, Chinese hominid fossils displayed close relationships to the modern peoples living in the same geographical areas today. This supported, in his view, the multiregional model of the origin of modern humans (Wu 1989).

Wu addressed larger questions about human evolution in a paper titled “Thoughts on the Whole Course of Human Evolution” (Wu 1995). Here he observed that in the transitional period when apes were evolving into hominids, distinctive human traits arose successively over time but no one trait alone could be considered as the distinguishing feature separating apes and hominids. He argued that this period began with the evolution of upright posture (bipedalism) and ended with toolmaking. He believed that self-consciousness and speech originated before toolmaking. Interestingly, he argued that the existing hominid fossil record supported the view that hominid evolution proceeded according to the punctuated equilibrium model of evolution first proposed by Stephen Gould and Niles Eldredge in 1972. Moreover, Wu promoted a mosaic model of human evolution, where different parts of the body evolved at different rates. He noted that “Australopithecus, Homo habilis and Homo erectus all show mosaic features of modern humans and modern apes.” He also believed that the large brain of modern humans was produced by the long process of using and making tools. Late in his career, Wu participated in the analysis of two fragmentary Homo erectus crania unearthed from Hulu Cave, in Tangshan, near Nanjing in 1993 (Wu and Li 2002).

As a leading scientist at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Wu had a profound influence on Chinese paleoanthropology during the second half of the twentieth century. In addition to his research, Wu also trained Chinese graduate students in the techniques of physical anthropology and anthropometry. These included Wu Xinzhi, who later became a leading paleoanthropologist in China, and the two men remained close colleagues and collaborated on various projects over several decades. Wu served as the deputy director of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology from 1977 to 1983. In 1980, Wu was elected Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 1982, he founded the journal Acta Anthropologica Sinica, which focuses on paleoanthropology and physical anthropology in China. He wrote or co-authored several books. Wu Rukang and Wu Xinzhi wrote 人體骨骼測量方法 [Methods for Measuring the Human Skeleton] (1965), which outlined the anthropometric methods for measuring the bones of the human skeleton. In 1989 Wu Rukang, Wu Xinzhi, and Zhang Senshui published 中国远古人类 [Early Humankind in China], which discussed the major Paleolithic and Neolithic human skeletons excavated in China, as well as the ape fossils, Pleistocene animals and paleoenvironment of the country. Wu also wrote several articles tracing the achievements made by Chinese paleoanthropologists since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 (Wu 1980; 1982a; 1989; 2009). This includes Recent Advances of Chinese Palaeoanthropology, which was originally delivered in May 1981 as the Dr. S.T. Huang-Chan Memorial Lecture at the University of Hong Kong (Wu 1982b).

Wu was a member of other prominent Chinese scientific institutions and societies. He was a member of the Chinese Society of Anatomical Sciences and served as its vice chairman from 1970 to 1978, and then as its chairman from 1978 to 1986. He was also a member of the Chinese Society of Paleontology and of the National Committee of the China Association for Science and Technology. Wu was a member of several international scientific societies as well. He was elected an honorary member of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences and served as a member of its Permanent Council. Wu was a member of the International Union for Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences, and of the International Association for the Study of Human Paleontology. Wu also won a number of awards during his career. Wu won first prize, along with his co-authors Wu Xinzhi and Zhang Senshui, of the National Natural Science Awards from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1991 for their book 中国远古人类 [Early Humankind in China]. In 2000, the same book won second prize of the inaugural Guo Moruo History Award. The Guo Moruo Foundation was established to recognize works of history, archeology, paleography and paleoanthropology. That same year, Wu was honored with the Hong Kong based Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Science and Technology Achievement Award.

Wu died in Beijing on 31 August 2006.

Selected Bibliography

Wu Rukang and Jia Lanpo, “New Discoveries of Sinanthropus pekinensis in Choukoutien.” Acta Paleontologica Sinica 2 (1954): 267–288.

Wu Rukang and Zhou Mingzhen, “New Materials of the Earliest Primate Known in China Hoanghonius stehilini.” Vertebrata PalAsiatica 1 (1957): 267–272.

Pei Wenzhong and Wu Rukang, Tzeyang Paleolithic Man. (Memoirs of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology, Academia Sinica 1). Beijing, Science Press, 1957.

“Fossil Human Parietal Bone and Femur from Ordos, Inner Mongolia.” Vertebrata PalAsiatica 2 (1958a): 208–212.

“Tzeyang Paleolithic Man—Earliest Representative of Modern Man in China.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 16 (1958b): 459–471.

“Human Fossils Found in Liukiang, Kwangsi, China.” Vertebrata PalAsiatica 3 (1959): 109–118.

Jia Lan-po and Wu Rukang, “Fossil Human Skull Base of Late Paleolithic Stage from Chilinshan, Leipin District, Kwagnsi, China.” Vertebrata PalAsiatica 3 (1959): 37–39.

Wu Rukang and Zhao Zikuei, “New Discovery of Sinanthropus Mandible from Choukoutien.” Vertebrata PalAsiatica 3 (1959): 169–172.

Wu Rukang and Peng Ruce, “Fossil Human Skull of Early Paleoanthropic Stage Found at Mapa, Shaoquan, Kwantung Province.” Vertebrata PalAsiatica 3 (1959): 176–182.

“The Unbalanced Development of the Physical Features of Sinanthropus pekinensis and Its Interpretation.” Vertebrata PalAsiatica 6 (1960): 17–28.

“The Mandibles and Dentition of Gigantopithecus.” Palaeontologia Sinica n. s. D: 11 (1962): 65–94.

“Mandible of the Sinanthropus-Type Discovered at Lantian, Shensi.” Vertebrata PalAsiatica 1(1964a): 1–12.

“Mandible of Sinanthropus lantianensis.” Current Anthropology 5 (1964b): 98–102.

Wu Rukang and Wu Xinzhi, 人體骨骼測量方法 [Methods for Measuring the Human Skeleton]. Beijing: Kexue Chubanshe, 1965.

“The Hominid Skull of Lantian, Shensi.” Vertebrata PalAsiatica 10 (1966a): 1–16.

“The Skull of Lantian Man.” Current Anthropology 7 (1966b): 83–86.

“Palaeoanthropology in the New China.” In L. K. Koenigsson (ed.). Current Arguments on Early Man. Pp. 182–206. London: Pergamon Press, 1980.

Wu Rukang and Dong Xingren. “Preliminary Study of Homo erectus Remains from Hexian, Anhui.” Acta Anthropologica Sinica 1(1982): 2–13.

Wu Rukang and Wu Xinzhi, “Human Fossil Teeth from Xichuan, Henan.” Vertebrata PalAsiatica 20 (1982): 1–9.

Wu Rukang et al., “More Ramapithecus Skulls from Lufeng, Yunnan—Report on the Excavation of the Site in 1981.”  Acta Anthropologica Sinica 2 (1982): 101–108.

“Archaeology in China: Recent Work from Chinese Publications. Paleoanthropology in China, 1949–79.” Current Anthropology 23 (1982a): 473–477.

Recent Advances of Chinese Palaeoanthropology. (Occasional Papers Series). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1982b.

Wu Rukang and Lin Shenglong, “Peking Man.” Scientific American 248 (1983): 78–86.

Wu Rukang and Charles E. Oxnard, “Ramapithecines from China: Evidence from Tooth Dimensions.” Nature 306 (1983a): 258–260.

Wu Rukang and Charles E. Oxnard, “Ramapithecus and Sivapithecus from China: Some Implications for Higher Primate Evolution.” American Journal of Primatology 5 (1983b): 303–344.

Wu Rukang, Xu Qinghua, and Lu Qingwu, “Morphological Features of Ramapithecus and Sivapithecus and Their Phylogenetic Relationships: Morphology and Comparison of the Crania.” Acta Anthropologica Sinica 2 (1983c): 1–10.

“The Crania of Ramapithecus and Sivapithecus from Lufeng, China.” P. Andrews and J.L. Franzen (eds), (The Early Evolution of Man with Special Emphasis on Southeast Asia and Africa.) Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg 69 (1984): 41–48.

Wu Rukang and Pan Yuerong, “A Late Miocene Gibbon-Like Primate from Lufeng, Yunnan Province.” Acta Anthropologica Sinica 3 (1984): 185–194.

“New Chinese Homo erectus and Recent Work at Zhoukoudian.” In E. Delson (ed.). Ancestors: The Hard Evidence. Pp. 245–248. New York: Alan R. Liss, 1985.

Wu Rukang, Xu Qinghua, and Lu Qingwu. “Morphological Features of Ramapithecus and Sivapithecus and Their Phylogenetic Relationships: Morphology and Comparison of the Teeth.” Acta Anthropologica Sinica 4 (1985): 197–204.

Wu Rukang and Pan Yuerong, “A New Adapid Primate from the Lufeng Miocene, Yunnan.” Acta Anthropologica Sinica 4 (1985a): 1–6.

Wu Rukang and Pan Yuerong, “Preliminary Observation on the Cranium of Laccopithecus robustus from Lufeng, Yunnan with Reference to Its Phylogenetic Relationship.” Acta Anthropologica Sinica 4 (1985b): 7–12.

Wu Rukang, Ren Meie & Zhu Xianmo (eds.), 北京猿人遺址综合硏究 [Multi-disciplinary Study of the Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian.] Beijing, 1985.

Wu Rukang, Xu Qinghua, and Lu Qingwu. “Relationship between Lufeng Sivapithecus and Ramapithecus and Their Phylogenetic Position.” Acta Anthropologica Sinica 5 (1986): 1–30.

Pan Yuerong and Wu Rukang, “A New Species of Sinoadapis from the Hominoid Site, Lufeng.” Acta Anthropologica Sinica 5 (1986): 31–40.

Wu Rukang and Wang Linghong, “Sexual Dimorphism of Fossil Apes in Lufeng.” Acta Anthropologica Sinica 6 (1987): 169–174.

“A Revision of the Classification of the Lufeng Great Apes.” Acta Anthropologica Sinica 6 (1987): 265–271.

“The Reconstruction of the Fossil Human Skull from Jinniushan, Yinkou, Liaoning Province and Its Main Features.” Acta Anthropologica Sinica 7 (1988a): 97–101.

“Paleoanthropology and Neoanthropology.” International Social Science Journal 116 (1988b): 265–270.

“The Role Played by Chinese Paleoanthropological Studies in the History of Human Evolution.” Acta Anthropologica Sinica 8 (1989): 293–300.

Wu Rukang, Wu Xinzhi, and Zhang Senshui, 中国远古人类 [Early Humankind in China]. Beijing: Kexue Chubanshe: Xin hua shu dian Beijing fa xing suo fa xing, 1989.

“On the Classification of Subspecies of Homo.” Acta Anthropologica Sinica 11 (1992): 109–111.

“Thoughts on the Whole Course of Human Evolution.” Acta Anthropologica Sinica 14 (1995): 285–296.

Wu Rukang and Li Xingxue (eds.), 南京直立人 [Homo erectus from Nanjing]. Nanjing: Jiangsu ke xue ji shu chu ban she, 2002.

Wu Rukang and Lin Shenglong, “Chinese Palaeoanthropology: Retrospect and Prospect.” In Wu Rukang and John Olsen (eds.), Paleoanthropology and Paleolithic Archaeology in the People’s Republic of China. pp. 27–57. Routledge, 2009.

Wu Rukang and Dong Xingren, “‘Homo erectus’ in China.” In Wu Rukang and John Olsen (eds.), Paleoanthropology and Paleolithic Archaeology in the People’s Republic of China. pp. 99–107. Routledge, 2009.

Wu Rukang and Xu Qinghua. “Ramapithecus and Sivapithecus from Lufeng, China.” In Wu Rukang and John Olsen (eds.), Paleoanthropology and Paleolithic Archaeology in the People’s Republic of China. pp. 53–68. Routledge, 2009.

Other Sources

Peter Andrews and John Cronin, “The Relationships of Sivapithecus and Ramapithecus and the Evolution of the Orang-utan.” Nature 297 (1982): 541–546.

Gregory Eliyu Guldin, The Saga of Anthropology in China: From Malinowski to Moscow to Mao. New York: Routledge 1994.

Steve Ward and David Pilbeam, “Maxillo-facial Morphology of Miocene Hominoids from Africa and Indo-Pakistan.” In R. L. Ciochon and R.S. Corruccini (eds.), New Interpretations of Ape and Human Ancestry. pp. 211–238. New York: Plenum, 1983.

Secondary Sources

Frank Spencer, “Wu Rukang (1916).” In Frank Spencer (ed.) History of Physical Anthropology: An Encyclopedia. 2 vols. Vol. 2, pp. 1118–1120. New York: Garland Publishing, 1997.

Wu Xinzhi, “Wu, Rukang.” In Claire Smith (ed.), Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. pp. 7920–7921. Springer New York, 2014.

Li Luyang, 吴汝康传 [Biography of Wu Rukang]. Shanghai: Shanghai Scientific and Technological Education Publishing House, 2004.

Wu Xinzhi, “Wu Rukang,” in W. Qianjin & H. Yanhong (eds.), Outstanding Persons of Chinese Academy of Sciences: 546–549. Beijing: Science Press, 2010.

*I would like to acknowledge the assistance of Lo Kuan-Hung and Shih Po-Jen in translating Chinese sources.