Joint study of history of arthritis in China. I have worked with Dr. Bruce Rothschild of the Arthritis Center of Northeast Ohio, Dr. Zhang Censhan of the Beijing Chaoyang Hospital and Prof. Zhang Zhenbiao of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, in developing a project to study skeletal collections in China relevant to ongoing research conducted by Dr. Rothschild on the origins of arthritic disorders in modern human populations. Our Chinese colleagues traveled to the U.S. during the Spring of 1992 to participate in a mini-seminar on Paleopathology conducted by Dr. Rothschild. Plans for studying prehistoric and modern skeletal collections in China are being formulated.
China has vast potential to serve as a controlled laboratory for the study of modern human origins.
It is very important to restudy this material in light of recent worldwide advances in modern human origins research. I plan on pursuing this line of research and have established contacts in China which will facilitate the development of joint research projects focused on the origins of modern humans in east Asia. The projects enumerated above include research in the areas of greatest paleoanthropological interest in China today. The Yunxian crania are the most complete ever recovered from middle Pleistocene deposits on the Asian mainland. The Nihewan beds have been considered since the 1920s to be the type lower Pleistocene sequence in north China.