One million year old "Yunxian Man" fossil found in Shiyan has shaken the theory that "human beings originated in Africa"

Li Tianyuan (middle), an expert from the Hubei Provincial Archaeological Institute, introduced the excavation at the site of the "Yunxian Man" skull fossil excavation. (Information picture)

In the 1980s and 1990s, the skull fossils of "Homo erectus in Yunxian County" were found in Yunyang District, about 1 million years ago. (Information picture)

In 1975, ape human tooth fossils were excavated in Meipu, Yunxian County. (Information picture)

　According to Shiyan Evening News Digital News (reporter He Li), before 1990, most experts and scholars in the scientific community who studied the origin of human beings believed that "human beings originated in Africa". In 1989 and 1990, two fossils of Homo erectus skulls were unearthed in Qingqu Town, Yunyang District, directly shaking the scientific conclusion that "human beings originated in Africa".
Since the discovery of "Yunxian Meipu Ape Man" in Meipu Town, Yunyang District in 1975, "Yunxi Bailong Cave Man", "Yunxi Huanglong Cave Man" and "Yunxian Man" with a history of 1 million years have been successively discovered in Shiyan. With the in-depth study of the ancient human culture in Shiyan, Shiyan is known as the "Ancient Human Corridor" by the academic community. Xuetangliangzi Site, Meipu Ape Man Site, Huanglong Cave Site, and Bailong Cave Ape Man Site are all Paleolithic sites, which shows that ancient humans have lived and multiplied in Shiyan since ancient times.
Four ancient human remains excavated in Shiyan, rare in the world
Meipu Ape Man Cave, also known as Keel Cave, is located in Dujiagou, Meipu Town, 60 kilometers northeast of Yunyang District. The hills on the east, west and south sides of the cave rise and fall, and the Taohe River winds eastward to the north and flows into Danjiang River, a tributary of the Han River. Meipu Ape Man Cave, a large horizontal karst cave, was formed in the limestone of Sinian system (570 million to 1.2 billion years ago).
Meipu Ape Man Cave was discovered in 1970. In the summer of 1975, the field team of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences excavated the cave and found four ape human tooth fossils, all on the left. One is the left upper middle incisor, the other three are molars, and the crowns are well preserved. The tooth morphology analysis is similar to that of Beijingers and Javanese, which is earlier than that of Beijingers and is 700000-800000 years old, providing important material evidence for the study of the origin of human beings.
At the same time, archaeologists also found some gravel stones with clear traces after being hit manually, as well as more than 20 kinds of associated animal rocks, such as macaques, jackal bears, giant pandas, badgers, cats, foxes, otters, horses, tapirs, rhinoceroses, piglets, deer, beavers, porcupines and turtles. Some of the species still belong to the giant panda saber tooth elephant fauna. It can be seen that in ancient times, it was a place where the climate was warm and humid, forests and grasslands were lush, rare birds and animals were clustered, and the environment was beautiful and prosperous. It is identified as the fifth place where ape man fossils were found in China between 500000 and 1 million years ago.
It can be said that a stone stirs up thousands of waves. Such an accidental discovery has attracted more archaeologists to the Han River basin. Just one year later, in 1976, the cultural relic cadres of Yunxi Cultural Museum went to the Bailong Cave in Shenwu Mountain in the east of Yunxi County to investigate, which proved that the cave was an important fossil origin. They selected 3 human tooth fossils from the "keel" collected by the masses in Bailong Cave.
On February 27, 1977, the People's Daily published the report that the tooth fossils of apes and humans were found in Bailong Cave, Yunxi, Hubei Province, which caused a shock to the archaeological and scientific circles all over the country. The Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences organized the first excavation and found three ape human teeth and a large number of ancient vertebrate fossils. Subsequently, relevant domestic scientific research institutions, universities and cultural institutions excavated the site several times in the late 1970s and 1980s, and found several ape human tooth fossils and a large number of evidences related to ancient human activities. The mystery of Bailong Cave has finally been unveiled. According to scientific research, it is an ancient ape man site about 600000 years ago.
On June 18, 2010, 82 year old Wu Xinzhi, an academician of the CAS Member and a leading archeologist, came to the Bailong Cave in Yunxi again to make a field survey of this ancient human site, regardless of his age and physique, and braved the high temperature. This is the third time Academician Wu Xinzhi has come here. Before that, he had participated in the archaeological excavation of Bailong Cave twice in 1977 and 1982. Wu Xinzhi believed that the discovery of four ancient human remains, namely Meipu, Quyuan Estuary, Huanglong Cave and Bailong Cave, within a radius of 100 kilometers from the Quyuan Estuary in Yunyang District, is a rare phenomenon in the world and a great discovery. These four ancient human remains fully prove that the "two Yuns" (Yunyang District and Yunxi County) area was the birthplace of ancient human reproduction and evolution as early as 100000 to 800000 years ago.
After the investigation, Academician Wu Xinzhi cheerfully left a message: "The Bailong Cave ancient human remains are the evidence of the ancient human reproduction in Yunxi. Combining with other ancient relics, it shows that Yunxi has been a livable place for a long time. He hopes to give full play to the role of underground, ground and even non-material cultural heritage, and build Yunxi into a happier and more prosperous paradise for the people."
Scientific research shows that the origin and evolution of human beings can be divided into four stages: Australopithecus, Homo habilis, Homo erectus and Homo sapiens. So far, the earliest Homo erectus discovered in China is Yuanmou Ape Man, about 1.7 million years ago. Beijing people in Zhoukoudian lived from 200000 to 700000 years ago. However, the information of early Homo erectus between 600000 and 1 million years ago is very limited. The discovery of the fossil of Bailongdong hominid filled this gap.
In addition, more than 200 pieces of hand made vein quartz products were found in Bailong Cave, mainly scrapers, and small plate shaped choppers. The types of associated mammals in Yunxi Bailong Cave are basically the same as those in the Longgu Cave in Meipu Town, Yunyang District, but there are also differences. The ancient surviving species are missing, and new genera are increasing, such as bamboo rats, tigers, civets, wolves, cattle and deer. This fauna proves that its age is later than that of the Longgu Cave in Yunxian County, about the same as that of Peking Man.
The tools and animal bones with artificial traces, as well as the burial of special sites, revealed that human beings had the ability to hunt, slaughter, cut and separate animals to a certain extent at that time. This information shows that the ancient humans in ancient times had a considerable degree of viability, and they had carried out a series of activities related to survival in Shiyan. The human bone specimens unearthed in Bailong Cave site have many similarities with the Meipu ape man in Yunxian County, which provides evidence for the study of the migration process of apes and humans, and is of great significance to witness the ancient human survival activities, migration and evolution, human interaction and communication in northwest Hubei.
"Yunxian people" shocked China and foreign countries, and two fossils changed the theory of "human origin in Africa"
Ancient human fossils have been successively found in Meipu Town and Yunxi County of Yunyang District, which makes experts and scholars in the archaeological community more interested in the Han River basin. In fact, the experts' predictions were soon confirmed.
May 18, 1989 was a day of great surprise, and also a memorable day in the archaeological history of China, Asia and the world. It set off a storm in the scientific community and shook the "scientific conclusion" that human beings originated in Africa. On this day, a fossil skull of Homo erectus was found in Liangzi, Xuetang Village, Mituosi Village, Qingqu Town, Yunyang District! This skull fossil was identified by Professor Jia Lanpo, a researcher of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a world-famous expert in paleoanthropology: this is a true fossil of ancient humans, and certainly the direct ancestor of Asian humans!
In 1924, Australian professor Dart found the first Australopithecus skulls in Towne, South Africa. Since then, Australopithecus fossils have been found in Africa, with more than 350 individuals. However, such fossils have not been found in other parts of the world. The fossil of ancient ape skull is dated about 2.4 million years ago. Therefore, the international academic community has concluded that Australopithecus africanus is the direct ancestor of human beings, and the early humans in Asia migrated from the early humans in Africa.
In 1989, this fossil of ancient human skull unearthed in Yunxian County was rated as one of the "Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries in China" during the "Seventh Five Year Plan" period. In May 1990, Li Tianyuan, an expert from Hubei Archaeological Research Institute, and others found a complete fossil of ancient human skull in the gravel layer 3.3 meters away from the fossil site of ancient human skull. This complete fossil stone of ancient human head was rated as one of the "Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries in China" in 1990. On February 5, 1991, Li Tianyuan reported publicly for the first time on the Chinese Heritage News about the fossil of ancient human skulls found in Yun County in 1990, and proposed the name of "Yun County People"!
In June 1992, the British magazine Nature published a paper jointly written by Li Tianyuan and Dr. D. Etler of the Department of Anthropology of the University of California, Berkeley in the United States, "The New Discovery of the Middle Pleistocene Human Skull in Yunxian, China", emphasizing that "Yunxian Man" belongs to the type of Homo erectus and represents an important link in the long chain of human evolution. Later, news media and science and technology magazines published articles saying: "The national treasure was unearthed in Yunxian County, Hubei Province!" The discovery of "Yunxian people" was selected as one of the 50 important scientific achievements in the world by Discovery magazine in January 1993.
Professor STRINGER, an authoritative representative of the theory of "human origin in Africa" and director of the Human Origin Research Office of the British Museum of Natural History, after studying Li Tianyuan's paper published in the British journal Nature, admitted that this skull is the most complete specimen showing that Homo erectus has evolved into a more advanced species found so far in Chinese Mainland.
On June 5, 1992, when discussing this issue on Radio U · SBBV, he said: "Maybe modern people originated from Africa and China." His statement had a considerable impact on the academic community.
Fossils of ancient humans are unearthed intensively, showing the ancient civilization in Shiyan
After analyzing the fossils of "Yunxian Man" unearthed in Liangzi, Xuetang, Qingqu Town, Yunyang District, Chinese and foreign scientists determined that it was a late Homo erectus, living 1 million years ago. Because the two skull fossils are well preserved, and the brain and face are basically intact, it is believed that they have high academic research value for the origin and development of human beings.
After many excavations since 1990, the archaeologists have unearthed tens of thousands of stone tools in the Liangzi Cultural Site layer of Xuetang, including earth rock pieces, choppers, scrapers, stone hammers, two faced tools, and hand axes. They also excavated a large number of mammal fossils associated with ancient human fossils, which is of great scientific value to the study of human evolution, It not only provides important material materials for the study of the development relationship between Homo erectus and early Homo sapiens, as well as the cultural relationship between North and South, but also has great value for the study of ancient animal community, ancient climate evolution, ancient landform changes, etc.
The site of "Yun County People" has attracted great attention from ancient anthropologists at home and abroad. In 1998, the National Museum of Nature of France cooperated with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Humanity of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics to conduct a systematic study on the site of "Yunxian Man". After studying 9 handaxes unearthed from the site, experts believe that the "Yunxian people" are the earliest ancient humans who used handaxes in China. It is confirmed that the ancient humans living on the Chinese Mainland began to use hand axes at least 800000 years ago, and this discovery rewrites the conclusion that there was no hand ax in China in the Paleolithic Age, which has long existed in western academic circles.
Henry De Rumlet, former curator of the National Museum of Nature of France, said: "Through the research on stone products such as handaxes unearthed at the site of 'Yun County People', it is proved that human life has existed in the subcontinent of China for a long time, and this period was earlier than that in Europe."
Fortunately, the Yunxian Meipu ape man 750000 years ago, the Yunxi Bailongdong ape man 600000 years ago, and the Yunxi Huanglongdong ape man 50000 years ago are all distributed within a circle of 100 kilometers from the place where the "Yunxian man" skull fossils were unearthed, which strongly shows that "Yunxian man" is not an isolated certificate, and confirms the superior living conditions in Yunyang for millions of years! The amazing archaeological discovery of "Yunxian people" has made Yunyang famous all over the world.
In May 2008, the production team of CCTV's "Approaching Science" program came to Liangzi, a school in the village of Mituosi, Qingqu, Yunxian County, to scientifically analyze and comprehensively report "Yunxian people" in the form of TV science popularization. In the program, Li Tianyuan, the director of the "Yun County People" research project and an expert from the Hubei Provincial Archaeological Research Institute, introduced that "Yun County People" have the morphological characteristics of both Homo erectus and ancient humans, as well as the morphological characteristics of European ancient humans. Therefore, "Yunxian people" are a typical specimen of the combination of things, and play a very important role in the chain of human evolution.
Feng Xiaobo, a doctor from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that as the site of unearthed "Yunxian Man" skull fossils, Liangzi, a school in Qingqu Town, Yunxian County, has entered textbooks around the world.
Forty four Chinese and foreign experts, including Wu Xinzhi, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Gao Xing, deputy director of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fu Guangdian, director of the Chinese Association of Regional Culture, issued the "Consensus on the Protection of the Heritage of the Origin and Evolution of Human Beings" declaration: the middle and upper reaches of the Han River, with Yun County as the center, is an important area for the study of human evolution in China, which should be given enough attention by the scientific community
The research shows that the middle and upper reaches of the Han River represented by Yun County are rich in ancient cultural heritage. In order to strengthen research and protection, it is recommended that the country establish a regional cultural heritage protection sharing platform in Yun County - the Research Center for the Protection of Human Fossils and Historic Sites.
Compared with "Beijingers", "Yunxian people" are not only 500000 years earlier, but also have a brain volume of 1065ml, which is close to the average value of 1075ml of "Beijingers", proving that the intellectual level of "Yunxian people" is also close to "Beijingers".
From November 25 to 28 this year, the academic seminar on the 30th anniversary of the discovery of the fossil skull of "Yunxian people" in Yunyang, China, was held in Yunyang District. Nearly 30 experts and scholars from all over the country attended. Over the past 30 years, international and domestic experts, famous cultural scholars, economic experts and friendly personages, focusing on the topic of "Yun County People", have studied it from the academic, cultural and economic perspectives, and produced a large number of major theoretical achievements, making "Yun County People" go global. At this seminar, experts and scholars published their latest research results one after another.
At the seminar, experts and scholars reached a consensus that the enrichment of Xuetangliangzi Site is unique in China and rare in the world. Two of the most complete skull fossils and a large number of associated mammal fossils, as well as their axes and production tools, have been unearthed in Xuetangliangzi. In particular, there are Meipu Ape Man Site, Bailong Cave Site, Huanglong Cave Site, and many Paleolithic fossil sites in the Han River basin with Xuetangliangzi Site as the core. This enrichment is unique in China and rare in the world.
Xuetangliangzi Site is a treasure house of materials for studying the origin, evolution and development of human beings. After concentrated discussion, experts reached a consensus that Xuetangliangzi Site is an important area of human origin and evolution, plays a very important role at home and abroad, and is a treasure house for studying human origin, evolution and development.
Wu Xiujie, director and researcher of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, appealed at the report site to speed up the protection, development, research and utilization of Xuetangliangzi Site. It is the common responsibility of governments at all levels and society to protect Liangzi Site of Xuetang, and protection is the first. At the same time, it is necessary to provide more abundant materials for multi-disciplinary research through further investigation and excavation, so as to play the role of science popularization and education and serve the economic and social development. On the premise of good protection in accordance with the law, scientifically plan and reasonably use the site park, promote the construction of the site park, and build it into an international base for the study of human evolution, popular science education, and research travel.