Yuanmou Man was named "Yuanmou Homo erectus" because he found his position on the mountain in the northwest of Shangnabang Village, Yuanmou County, Yunnan Province. His English name is homo erectus Yuan Mou, commonly known as "Yuanmou Man". The word "Yuanmou" comes from Dai language, which means "steed".
1 may, 9651day Yuanmou man's tooth fossils were found in shangnabang village, Yuanmou county, Yunnan province. Yuanmou County is known as "the hometown of Yuanmou people". 1976 according to the paleomagnetic method, the life age is about1700,000 years ago, and the difference between before and after is not more than100,000 years (some scholars think that its age should not exceed 730,000 years, that is, it may be 600,000 years ago to 500,000 years ago or later).
About 6.5438+0.7 million years ago, Yuanmou in Yunnan was a subtropical grassland and forest, where tertiary animals such as deer and ungulates lived and multiplied. After a while, early Pleistocene animals such as mulberry hyenas, Yunnan horses and Shanxi axis deer appeared in this grassland and forest.
Most of them are herbivores. Yuanmou people hunted with crude stone tools in order to survive. According to the unearthed two teeth, stone tools and carbon chips, as well as a small number of stone products, a large number of carbon chips and mammalian fossils unearthed in the same place later, it is proved that they are primitive humans who can make tools and use fire.
Yuanmou Basin, located between the mountains along the Jinsha River, has a dry and hot climate and is a famous "thermal dam" in central Yunnan. 1At the beginning of May, 965, geologists Qian Fang and Pu Qingyu and his party excavated a left central incisor and a right central incisor in the early Late Pleistocene stratum of Shangnabang Village in Dana wucun Basin, Yuanmou, belonging to young men, with similar morphological characteristics and earlier age than Beijingers.
According to the scientific method of geomagnetic instruments, these two tooth fossils belong to primitive humans 6.5438+0.7 million years ago and a new subspecies of Homo erectus-Homo erectus Yuanmou subspecies. The discovery of Yuanmou man is of great significance to reveal the history of human evolution.
Yuanmou man was earlier than Lantian man, Beijinger and Neanderthal man, thus advancing the age of the earliest human fossils discovered in China by more than one million years. The discovery of the site of Yuanmou Man has important historical significance and scientific research value. China and some countries have written this discovery into textbooks.
Extended data
There are different views on the geological age and absolute age of Yuanmou man fossils in academic circles.
One view is that it belongs to the early early Pleistocene, about 6.5438+0.7 million years ago. Institute of Geomechanics, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, measured 6.5438+0.7 million years ago by paleomagnetic method. Electron spin resonance method was 160 ~ 165438+ million years ago. According to the study of mammals related to Yuanmou people and the comparison with Beijing people's teeth, it seems more primitive.
Another view is that in the middle Pleistocene. Because the paleomagnetic age should not exceed 730,000 years, according to the fossil layer of Yuanmou people, it may be 600,000 to 500,000 years ago or later. The research on the discovered stone tools shows that Yuanmou lived in the early Paleolithic period.
If the age of Yuanmou man is 6.5438+0.7 million years ago, then Yuanmou man is the earliest known ancient human in China. Because this is Yuanmou's initial orientation, some textbooks, popular books and encyclopedias hold this view.
References:
Baidu Encyclopedia-Yuanmou Man