Nanjing ape-man fossils are about 600,000-350,000 years ago, which is of great historical and scientific value for studying the distribution and evolution of ancient humans in China and the living environment of Pleistocene humans, especially in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The excavation of ancient human skull fossils in Huludong, Tangshan, Nanjing is an important discovery of world significance in the field of ancient human research and paleolithic archaeology in China.
A pair of male and female skulls were unearthed in Nanjing Ape Cave, only 5 meters apart. Two species were found in the same fossil site, and Nanjing is the only place in the world. This not only makes the "Nanjing Ape Cave" the only place in the world where two human species are found in the same fossil site, but also provides a strong basis for the multi-origin theory of human beings. China people did not originate in Africa.
Basic introduction Chinese name: Nanjing ape-man Latin scientific name: Homo erectus? Nanjing people alias: Nanjing Homo erectus, Nanjing people: Animal kingdom: Chordata Subdivision: Vertebrate Subdivision: Mammalia Subdivision: Fauna Subdivision: Primate Subdivision: Anthropoceae ae Subdivision: Anthropoceae: Anthropoceae: Anthropoceae: Homo erectus subspecies: Nanjing people? H.E. Nankeniensis Time: about 600,000-350,000 years ago, archaeological excavations, physical features, unearthed cultural relics, cultural relics identification, appearance restoration, unearthed sites, subsequent discoveries, accidental discoveries, fossil identification, archaeological excavations1March 19931March 3' n Physical characteristics of a Nanjing ape-man skull in the Ordovician limestone cave of Leigongshan, Tangshan Town, Jiangning County, Nanjing:/kloc-0 * * Two Nanjing ape-man skulls were found, of which 1 skull (the fossil of Nanjing Homo erectus 1 skull) is slightly complete, with parietal bone, frontal bone, left orbit and some cheeks, nasal bones and occipital bones. No.2 skull fossil is well preserved, including frontal bone, parietal bone and occipital bone. No.2 skull fossil is stout and strong, representing an adult male individual aged 30-40. In the top view and inside view of No.2 skull, a fossil of an ape-man tooth and more than 2,000 fossils of ancient vertebrates were unearthed, representing 15 species of vertebrates, among which most animals such as China hyenas and swollen deer were extinct in ancient times. According to preliminary determination, its evolution belongs to the late Middle Pleistocene, about 350,000 years ago. The shape of ape-man skull has many similarities with Zhoukoudian Beijingers, and the accompanying animal population is also similar to Zhoukoudian Beijingers. It is of great historical and scientific value to study the distribution and evolution of ancient humans in China and the living environment in Pleistocene, especially in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The discovery of ancient human skull fossils in Huludong is an important discovery of world significance in the field of paleoanthropology and paleolithic archaeology in China. It advanced the activity history of Nanjing ancestors to 350,000 years ago. Before that, Nanjing could only be traced back to the Neolithic Age with a history of 56,000 years, represented by Beiyinyingying and Pukou Yingpanshan ancient cultural sites. The unearthed cultural relic Nanjing ape-man fossil was found in 1992. * * * There are two incomplete skulls and facial bones with no teeth attached. This fossil belongs to Homo erectus. At the same time, fossils of mammals were unearthed. It belongs to the Middle Pleistocene in geological time. Due to different determination methods, the data of absolute age determination are 6.5438+0.2 million years to 6.5438+0.8 million years and 290,000 years to 400,000 years. Some people think that the fauna born in accordance with * * * is close to the first in Zhoukoudian, and the overall age should be around 500,000 years. Side-looking Cultural Relics Appraisal of No.2 Skull In June of 20 13, experts from China Academy of Sciences and Institute of Paleoanthropology found that No.2 Skull was actually not the ape-man previously recognized, but another species-Homo sapiens! This new discovery not only makes the "Ape Cave" in Nanjing the only place in the world where two human species are found in the same fossil site, but also provides a strong basis for the theory of human origin in many places. China people did not originate in Africa. Nanjing Homo sapiens skull restoration map (dark color is fossil part) Zhang Yinyun and Liu Wu, researchers of vertebrate paleontology Institute of Paleoanthropology, China Academy of Sciences, finally found out the real body of No.2 skull by using advanced computing software! By restoring the skull, it is found that the area of the restored No.2 skull parietal bone is actually 1 13.5 square centimeters, which is far beyond the range of Homo sapiens 83.3- 109.5 square centimeters and even exceeds the standard of Homo sapiens12.9 square centimeters. At the same time, the two experts also found that the skull volume of the reset No.2 skull actually reached 1240.4 ml! Far more than 500 ml of Australopithecus, and also more than 800- 1200 ml of the skull volume standard of ape-man. It is much larger than the skulls of the apes in Zhoukoudian, Beijing, Hexian, Anhui, Lantian, Shaanxi and Nanjing. By restoring the skull, the two experts found six pieces of evidence to prove that the skull really belongs to Homo sapiens. Xu Hankui told reporters that the size of the skull is very important for identifying ancient humans. If the data of skull volume is accurate, it is almost certain that No.2 skull is Homo sapiens and Homo sapiens are two species. Xu Hankui, a researcher at Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that human evolution can be roughly divided into four stages: Homo sapiens, Homo erectus (also known as Homo sapiens), Homo sapiens and modern humans. The age of the No.2 skull should be between 250,000 and 240,000 years, because Homo sapiens is generally divided into early Homo sapiens (between 250,000 and 40,000 years) and late Homo sapiens (between 50,000 and 1. 1 10,000 years). "Early Homo sapiens in China only found 12, far less than 22 discovered by Homo sapiens. The fossils of early Homo sapiens are really precious. In the 12 site, 1 or 2-3 teeth were found in only five places, such as the famous Zhoukoudian in Beijing, where only one tooth was found, which was not related to the origin of the ape-man. " Xu Hankui thinks that apart from Hulu Cave in Nanjing, only five skulls or skulls can be found in the same place, while only Beijing and Nanjing belong to different periods in the same place, and only Nanjing can be found in the same place. "It's amazing, incredible!" These fossils show that 654.38 million+00,000 years ago, Jiangsu and Anhui were suitable for the growth and reproduction of apes. Prior to this, Academician Wu Xinzhi, a paleoanthropologist from China, and scholars from the United States and Australia put forward the theory that human beings originated in Africa and East Asia. Many scholars believe that the Jiangsu-Anhui region is one of the centers of human origin in East Asia. At present, the earliest primate skeleton found in China is in Anhui Buried Hill, more than 60 million years ago. Another 45-million-year-old China ape was found in Liyang. The drunken ape in Shuanghou, Sihong reappeared between 654.38+0.5 million years and 654.38+0 million years. Stone tools 2.4 million years ago were found in Fanchang, Anhui, indicating that it has entered the ape-man period. Later, "Early Homo sapiens" appeared in Chaohu Lake, Anhui Province 200,000 years ago. "Late Homo sapiens" appeared in Zhenjiang and Sihong 30,000 to 40,000 years ago. Fossils of primate-ape-ape-homo sapiens have been found in Anhui and Jiangsu, which provides strong evidence for the hypothesis that "Jiangsu and Anhui are the birthplace of human beings in East Asia". Appearance Restoration 20 14, 14 On July 3, the work of "Nanjing Homo erectus" which was being restored more than 300,000 years ago has entered the final stage of "resurrecting" skull fossils. It is expected that this restoration map will be exhibited in August 20 14. The fossils are brown and have a deep degree of fossilization. After splicing the three skull fragments, it contains a part of the facial skull and most of the skull, forming a relatively complete skull. Its facial and cranial preservation sites are: supraorbital occipital bone, nasal bone, zygomatic bone and maxilla, the left orbit is intact, and the right orbit has only the upper medial wall. The preserved part of skull includes: frontal bone, parietal bone, sphenoid bone, temporal bone and occipital bone. The posterior edge of foramen magnum is slightly disabled and the base of occipital bone is missing. Through the analysis of the morphological characteristics of the skull fossils of Nanjing Homo erectus, it is found that the morphological characteristics of Nanjing people and Peking people are very similar, which not only shows many characteristics of Mongols, but also has some characteristics of Europeans. As early as Yuanmou people, as late as cavemen, and as far away as modern China people, a series of Mongolian national characteristics have always existed, indicating that the main characteristics of the Mongolian nation appeared very early and have developed in the vast land of China. The skull of Homo erectus in Nanjing has been squeezed and deformed, and it is difficult to recover. Zhao deeply understood the background of the skull fossil of "Nanjing Homo erectus" and read a lot of documents and books. In order to recover the skull fossil of "Nanjing Homo erectus" more objectively and truly, Zhao plans to set the recovery age at about 30 years old. Professor Zhao (the archaeologist of criminal appearance and trace in China) uses the skull fossils with mirror image defects newly added in the portrait combination system of Police Star CCK-IV to carry out computer repair, selects the matched mandibles from thousands of skull banks for trial and error comparison, and hammers them after fine-tuning, scaling and trimming. The recovered "Nanjing Homo erectus" may be an ancient image with flat forehead, thick eyebrow arch, deep and wide eye sockets, short and upward nose, large nostrils, long upper jaw, protruding nose and mouth, slender lips, small and dense teeth and great wear. The discovery of the Ape Cave in Tangshan Town is another major archaeological breakthrough after Yunmou in Yunnan, Lantian in Shaanxi, Zhoukoudian in Beijing, and the Ape Cave in Hexian County in Anhui Province. 1995, it has become a tourist attraction open to tourists. There is a huge karst cave group in Leigong Mountain in the west of Tangshan Town. The total area of caves has reached tens of thousands of square meters, and Leigong Cave and Hulu Cave are open to tourists. 1March 1993 13 a relatively complete fossil of ancient human skull was unearthed in Hulu cave, which attracted the attention of the world. Archaeologists have found more than ten kinds of animal fossils here. According to scientific appraisal, it was born about 350,000 years ago in Nanjing ape-man, and the human history in Nanjing was more than 200,000 years earlier. At the same time, the Yangtze River basin has been recognized as one of the birthplaces of the Chinese nation. There are more than ten kinds of fossils found in Huludong, such as swollen bone deer and sika deer. Most of these animals grew in the Middle Pleistocene 65.438+0.5 billion years ago. Tangshan Ape Cave Scenic Area can be divided into six blocks, namely, the cliff carving spring landscape at the entrance, the ancient human stone carving garden at the foot of the mountain, the ancient human historical materials exhibition hall, the ape-man carving landscape on the cliff at the entrance of the site, the natural cave landscape and the bamboo garden leisure area. According to Professor Zhu's vision, it will become a "stone park" for Nanjing and even the whole country to display ancient humans. The funnel-shaped gap that was originally exposed on the stone cliff turned into a natural relief stone wall. According to the field investigation, the head-shaped stone on the stone wall will be slightly chiseled to become 4-5 "Nanjing ape-man" heads. Unlike Mount Presidential in the United States, the head of an ape-man avoids the trace of an axe and blends with natural rocks. In addition, on the top of the cave, two or three bronze statues of giant ape-man hunting stand as giant symbols of ape-man cave. Throughout the scenic area, stone age architectural sketches such as huts, stone tools, nests and caves can be seen everywhere, full of historical sense. Follow-up discovery unexpected discovery In April 2005, just after a rain, Mr. and Mrs. Liu, who live in Tangshan, accidentally discovered several strange-looking "stones" when they were picking stones near Huludong. Looking closely, they found that one of them looked like a tooth. Reminiscent of the famous local "Nanjing Ape Man", Mr. Liu decided to send these stones to Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology for "identification". After a year or so, the identities of these stones were initially confirmed. They are probably macaque or baboon fossils 6.5438+0 million years ago, which provides a stronger basis for proving the view that "Jiangsu-Anhui region is one of the birthplaces of human beings in East Asia". When it comes to "Nanjing ape-man", I'm afraid no one doesn't know. Because of quarrying in Huludong, Tangshan area, two skulls were accidentally discovered, which attracted worldwide attention after expert identification. At the beginning of 1992, the area was ready to be developed into a tourist attraction, and the quarry here was moved to a coal ash yard 500 meters west of Huludong. Later, the quarry was contracted by Mr Liu. On the day when the fossil was discovered, he used to pick up stones on the hillside south of the site. I didn't know he saw many "stones" like teeth. A few days later, he went up the mountain again and accidentally found a small hole 3-4 meters high on the hillside. Several tooth-like stones and other strange stones appeared not far from the mouth of the cave. He suspected that these "stones" were originally in this hole, but were later washed away by the rain. When he was ready to go into the cave to observe carefully, the rock was too steep, so he failed. In order to find out what these stones are, Mr. Liu is going to find an expert to confirm them. Fossil identification The first person to see these fossils was Xu Hankui, a researcher at Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology. Judging from the objects he provided, these fossils really look "weird". One of the fossils is well preserved, and four teeth are clearly visible on it, which are big and sharp; There are obvious scratches on another fossil, and the surface of the marks is very smooth. Researcher Xu Hankui said that from the appearance alone, it is impossible to determine whether these teeth are ape-man or not, and the scratches cannot be explained. Because ape-man fossils have always been "rare", even a tooth is extremely rare. Although the famous Yuanmou man in Yunnan only found three teeth, he advanced the history of Chinese ape-man by 6.5438+0.7 million years. Only the skulls of two "Nanjing Apes" have been found before. Later, a molar fossil was discovered during the official excavation. However, according to the research of relevant experts, this tooth should belong to Homo sapiens, not the tooth of Nanjing ape-man. If this tooth fossil really belongs to an ape-man, it will be a great discovery that shocked the whole world. Because of the urgency of the matter, researcher Xu Hankui took the fossils to the Institute of vertebrate paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing. Academician Wu Xinzhi of the Institute thinks that they are more like baboon teeth than ape teeth, but slightly larger than baboon teeth. In order to find out further, he gave the fossil to his student, Dr. Wen, with the same number. It was also difficult for him to draw conclusions about the strange phenomena of fossils, so he gave them to Dr. Chen. At the end of March 2006, the good news finally came from Beijing. According to the researchers' discussion, according to the geological age of fossils, it may be 654.38+0 million years ago. Among them, the tooth fossils are probably the molars of the maxilla (upper mouth) of Pei's macaque; As for the scraped limb bone fossil, the researchers think it looks like a baboon; And why there are scrapers is still inconclusive. These fossils are still in Beijing, and relevant experts say that further research and comparison are needed.