CHINA / Regional

Skulls suspicious of human's found in Gansu
(Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2006-04-03 11:30

Authorities are trying to determine whether 121 skulls found last week in a forest in Gansu Province belong to humans.


A total of 121 skulls whose tops had been sawn off were discovered last week in a forest in Northwest China's Gansu Province. DNA tests are underway to work out if the skulls belong to human being. The skulls were first thought to be monkeys, but a local professor held a suspicion that they belong to human being as he had found plastic teeth in a jaw of one of the skulls. [Lanzhou Morning Post]

The skulls were first thought to be monkeys, but Liu Naifa, life science professor at Lanzhou University in Lanzhou, the provincial capital, said they were human.

Plastic teeth were found in a jaw of one of the skulls, the Lanzhou Morning Newspaper said.

The tops of the skulls were sawn off before they were discovered.

Liu said the skulls were sawn not long ago. The professor also said they were from young and old people, as well as men and women.

A herdsman found the bones in a forest in Tanshanling Town of the Tibet Autonomous County of Tianzhu last week, according to the newspaper.

The forest is on the border between Gansu and Qinghai.

The provincial police department said it reported the case to the Ministry of Public Security.

According to the report, DNA tests will be used to determine whether the skulls are human.