European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 3, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Early Stone age Man May have wiped outa race of monster apes that would have lowered Over their predatory human contemporaries recently reported evidence suggests. The evidence a remarkable assemblage of fossils discovered by vietnamese scientists has prompted american anthropologists to mount an expedition of their own to he site in Lang son province of Northern Vietnam. Although details of the Lind Are sparse. Soviet scientists familiar with the area have confirmed the potential importance of the discovery and encouraged the americans to  investigation. In b a Tuure seen a a modest political overture toward the United states the Hanoi government has granted two american anthropologists permission to visit the site where the Bones of Homo rectus and his Stone weapons  to be mingled with the remains of the ape  the largest primate known to have lived.  had been thought by some palaeontologists to have died Oul Long before the Rise of Man and proof that the huge ape was actually a contemporary of Homo rectus would Call for re examination of the chronologies of primate evolution. Homo Reclus was a pleistocene epoch ancestor of modern Man. The americans John w. Olsen of the University of Arizona and Russell l. Ciochon of the University of California at Berkeley plan to be in Vietnam until the end of january. Besides examining the fossils discovered by the vietnamese the americans intend to evaluate the potential of he site for future anthropological study. We first heard 9 the site in 1983," Olsen said in an interview. We were working in China at the time where we encountered some vietnamese anthropologists who told us of the discovery. The find was apparently accidental. The ancient Bones seem to have been turned up in the course of digging Bat excrement out of Limestone caves for use As fertilizer since then Olsen said he and other scientists have vainly asked their vietnamese counterparts for Delelis about the site and ils loss Ila which Are believed to be roughly a Hall million years old. Olsen said he understood the site to be at Tham Khuyen. Northeast of Hanoi in a Range of Sugarloaf Lang son province shaped Limestone mountains shot through with ancient sinkholes caverns and underground streams. The same geological formation extends into the neighbouring Quang i Region of Souther China. The anthropologist said he had been urged to pursue the investigation by Pavel Boriskovskay a soviet scientist whose own excavations in Vietnam were halted in the late 1960s by american air raids. The soviet anthropologist said that before he was compelled to leave Vietnam he had come upon some tantalizing hints about the character of human existence during the pleistocene epoch 1.b million to about 100,000 years ago. It s been maddeningly frustrating Olsen said we thin the vietnamese have Nind something really important but lacking details about the Natue of the fossils and the geological situation to the site we be found it impossible to evaluate the discovery. That s Why we be been so anxious to visit the place and see did Early Man do in a race giant apes by Malcolm w. Browne new York times Vienna Rosa reports Sugeil hot Homo Orect a shown in  May have proved Ponape tar larger and stronger Man in. For ourselves we be been asking Lor three years and we re delighted that Hanoi has finally agreed the american said he considered himself the beneficiary of a change in Hanoi s stance toward the United slates by which scientific and cultural exchanges will be encouraged the expedition has been underwritten by the is b. Leakey foundation of Pasadena call., and is sponsored by the us committee for cooperative Exchange with Vietnam  has been cloaked in mystery Ever since its Fossil remains were accidentally discovered in a Hong Kong pharmacy 51 years ago. Fossil Bones were highly regarded in China As dragons  which when ground up and Ealen. Were supposed to be potent medicines. Among the waste scientists who regular in sorted through the stores of dragons Teeth collected by chinese pharmacies was . On Koenigswald a dutch Pale oncologist who in 1935 spoiled a tooth of immense size from a previously unknown Type of primate. Von Koenigswald found several  irom the same Type of ape in other Hong Kong pharmacies. Palaeontologists Soor realized thai if the Bot a of the animal were of the same scale As its Teeth which resembled those of a Gorilla it must have been a veritable King Kong standing some nine feel Tail and weighing 600 pounds the Genus was thus by far the largest primate known to science and was accordingly named  or Gigantic ape. Since 1935, scientists have found hundreds of  Teeth and some Jawbone of corresponding a Al Sites in Pakistan and China. But apart from some barely identifiable chips Tew other Bones of  have Ever come to Light and attempts at reconstructing the animal have remained largely speculative Olsen believed the ravages of ancient hyenas May a Plait the difficulty of Page 14 the stars and stripes saturday